Grandchild calling - The Cash Down-group investigates
It is Monday morning 11 o’clock. Ilse B.'s phone is ringing. On the other end of the line a young man says with a shaken voice: "Grandma, I really need your help. Something terrible has happened. I got mugged and I instantly need cash to pay the rate for my car, otherwise they are going to take it from me." Ilse B., age 87, believes the voice of the person that claims to be her grandson and goes to the bank to withdrawal the money. An hour later the "girlfriend" of her grandson rings the doorbell and picks up the cash.
This is how it works - a growing population of elder people are tricked with similar stories. The perpetrators systematically select typical names of the over 75 generation from phone books. Every day between 500 and 1000 elder people are called in Germany, mainly from Poland. When the called does not hang up right away the callers pretend to be relatives and to urgently need cash, because they are in an emergency situation. The cunning callers know no limits. Elder people are often lonely and believe them. "The situation of the caller is always described as extremely urgent. As soon as the retiree agrees to get the money, the so called "fetcher" is sent to the address to pick up the cash", Andreas Gerdon explains. He is head of operations in the investigation group "Cash Down" in Karlsruhe, based in the southwest of Germany. His group is part of the Department for Organised Crime and only operates in the field of the grandchild trick.
The exclusive access to the Cash Down-group offers the unique opportunity to follow the investigations. "Our focus are the cases around Karlsruhe, but if they show similarities to others Germany-wide, we start to investigate." The team of seven people arrested 23 suspects and resolved 300 cases in one year, which had caused a damage of over 1.6 million Euro. "We put the whole system under the microscope, not only the single case the inspector protocolled. We collect all information can gather within Germany. A close collaboration with our Polish colleagues is very important to us." This is why we may accompany the Germany officers of the Cash Down-group on their trip to Poland to apprehend the string pullers in the very act.
