International fight against grandchild trickery: police strike back!

International fight against grandchild trickery: police strike back!

Fraud against older people through shock calls and the so-called grandchild trick has increased alarmingly in Europe in recent years. The situation is particularly dramatic in Germany, where the police are now networking internationally to take action against this form of crime. This was discussed at a conference of the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Teltow, Brandenburg. Prosecutors and criminal police from 16 federal states as well as the BKA took part in this event, which took place from Wednesday to Friday, but also from countries such as Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Great Britain and Serbia. The aim is to develop common strategies to combat organized crime, and the conference is part of the EU-funded ISF Lumen project against cross-border crimes, as ZVW reports.

The number of grandchild scams in Germany is worrying. Last year, 6,656 cases were registered, of which only 1,527 were solved. The perpetrators, often from Eastern European family clans, often pose as relatives, police officers or lawyers in order to persuade older people to pay money. The police were able to identify almost 1,100 suspects and investigated 3,904 cases of false police officers and almost 1,600 cases of other false official representatives. The alleged damage amounts to a high, multi-digit million amount, although the number of unreported cases remains unknown.

International networking and investigative successes

International investigators have made progress in combating this crime, particularly in recent years. The perpetrators operate not only locally, but in around 25 countries worldwide. The German police have reported successes in cooperation with foreign investigative authorities. A concrete example is the reports about luxurious villas in which many of these gangs live and which finance themselves directly from the amounts they steal from their victims. In one case, a villa in Poland was observed to be inhabited by the head of a gang, equipped with expensive cars and security installations such as surveillance cameras. These details were documented by a responsible investigator named Jan Kowalski, as reported by Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The perpetrators usually benefit from a systematic selection of their victims, who are primarily older people. Those affected are often identified through telephone book searches. Tragic individual cases underline the drama of the situation: a senior citizen in Potsdam was cheated out of 220,000 euros, and an 88-year-old in Halle was even cheated out of 230,000 euros. However, the police have also recorded successes in combating these practices, such as a significant decrease in crimes in Berlin. In 2024 there was a decline of 50 percent compared to the previous year, which is due to the dismantling of several call centers.

Common strategies to combat crime

Cooperation within Germany has proven to be efficient, and cross-border operations have also led to positive results. The conference in Teltow has set itself the task of developing further common strategies to counter this growing threat and combat organized crime in the EU. A strong national police force and international connections are key in the fight against grandchild fraudsters, who continue to pose a serious challenge to society.