In a new variant of the "grandchildren's trick", fraudsters on the phone now pretend to be doctors.
The State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Hanover warned on Wednesday of the latest scam by criminals, with the help of shocking phone calls, especially older people, to get their money.
Hanover - According to the LKA, the fraudsters on the phone pretend to be medical staff and tell their victims a fictional story: A relative was seriously ill or injured in hospital.
Only special medication or an operation could help, for which a large sum of money is required.
In this way, according to the LKA, the victims are shocked and put under massive pressure.
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In Lower Saxony, several such cases have been counted in the past few months in which the callers were successful.
In this way they captured amounts of several tens of thousands of euros on average.
According to the LKA, the victims in particular are people aged 60 and over.
The perpetrators apparently deduce the age from the name and telephone number.
It is not yet known who is behind the new scam.
In August, the number of cases of classic grandchildren's tricks fell by around 30 percent and calls to wrong doctors rose by the same amount.
Since the beginning of the year, the LKA's input statistics have recorded an average three-digit number of offenses involving false doctors.
However, the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher, it said.
dpa