The State Police stresses that neither they nor other law enforcement agencies will ever call to ask for money. The police urge people to warn their elderly relatives about this type of scam and remind them that under no circumstances should they hand over money to strangers or reveal their bank account access details.
The Riga Regional Directorate of the State Police is investigating 16 criminal cases of fraud against pensioners in August this year. The majority of the victims are women from Pārdaugava.
The women received a call from an unknown person who spoke Russian and said that he was calling from the police and that their relative was involved in a traffic accident and was in serious trouble. The fraudsters allegedly demanded a large sum of money from the caller in order to avoid criminal proceedings against the person involved in the accident.
Some handed over €4,000, others €8,000, and a woman gave the money courier as much as €50,000 in cash.
Most of the time, the victims handed over the money by meeting the courier sent by the criminals in person, but in one case the money was even handed over to a stranger through a window, police said.
According to information available to the police, the criminals made the calls from a call center outside Latvia.
The police urge people to be vigilant and to drop such suspicious calls immediately.
