site.bta A Greek-Bulgarian Criminal Organization for Telephone Fraud Detained in Thessaloniki

A multi-member Greek-Bulgarian criminal organization, committing telephone fraud against elderly people, has been detained in Thessaloniki, writes Kathimerini. The Greek police and the Bulgarian authorities cooperated on this joint opereation. 

Police officers from the Protection of Property Rights Directorate of the Security Directorate in Thessaloniki have identified 11 people (9 Bulgarian citizens and 2 Greeks) against whom pre-trial proceedings have been initiated.

The police investigation indicated that the members of the organization posed as doctors or policemen to carry out phone scams on elderly people. They claimed to the victims that their loved one had been involved in a traffic accident and took advantage of the anxiety caused to take money and valuables.

It was established that in the period from August 2019 to January 2020 in Thessaloniki, in 18 criminal cases, the organization fraudulently appropriated a sum of money of more than EUR 250,000 and valuables worth EUR 14,000. During this period, they made six more unsuccessful attempts to defraud in the amount of  EUR 74,000.

Four of the leaders of the organization who made the calls, as well as two more who went to the homes of the victims to receive the sums of money, were detained for similar acts by the Bulgarian authorities in 2020. One of the members of the group was detained in Thessaloniki in May 2021.

The case was handed over to the Greek prosecution.