German crime gangs turn to phone scams in 'wave of fraud'

Retired judge says underworld has moved beyond jewel heists and is proving 'successful in new fields'

Germany this month staged mass raids against a criminal group linked to Italy’s 'Ndrangheta gang. Getty Images

Criminal gangs in Germany are using elaborate phone scams to trick older people into handing over their money as the enterprises harness technology beyond break-ins and armed intimidation.

A former judge told The National the underworld was proving “successful in new fields” after a notorious gang crime case, the Dresden Green Vault jewel theft, ended in prison terms for five culprits.

Detectives say the choreographed “shock calls” often involve several scammers posing as police or stricken relatives, with calls typically placed from Turkey or Eastern Europe.

In one recent case, an older couple in Germany was tricked into handing over gold bars worth €186,000 ($198,000), after a woman posing as their daughter claimed to need bailing out of prison.

Another similar scam was thwarted at the last minute by a sceptical taxi driver, whose 84-year-old passenger was on her way to collect a five-figure sum from her bank.

New cases are being reported almost daily in Germany in what one police force called a “wave of fraud”, despite federal investigators warning people to be on guard.

A hoax call often begins with a “supposed family member with a tearful voice” who then hands over to an accomplice posing as a police officer or prosecutor, said Germany’s federal criminal police.

“The scammers exploit this moment of shock and put their victims under time pressure to force them into ill-considered actions,” it said.

“The callers tie the victims down with an ongoing phone call and thereby prevent those affected from making contact with their real relatives or with the police.”

Authorities have said the scams often come from “criminal call centres” in Turkey or Eastern Europe and involve an intermediary picking up the money or gold bars in person. Suspects from Poland and Germany are among those to have been arrested.

Mathias Rohe, a retired appeal judge in Nuremberg and expert on Germany’s crime clans, said the gangs face “new forms of competition” from gangs originating in Russia and elsewhere.

Notorious clans with roots in Lebanon and Turkey, one of which was behind the Dresden robbery, are “only a part of the broader scene, starting with decade-old mafia structures in Germany,” he said.

“We have no evidence that the particular criminal family-based structures we are dealing with are getting stronger. But they are still an obvious threat, and seemingly successful in new fields such as shock calls,” he said.

“In addition, we see new actors in organised crime, and increasing international co-operation.”

Germany this month staged mass raids against a criminal group linked to Italy’s 'Ndrangheta gang.

The gang was accused of running a €22 million drugs ring as well as involvement in weapons trafficking, money laundering and tax avoidance.

The verdicts in the Dresden case came after a plea deal between prosecutors and members of the Remmo family that led to some of the loot being recovered.

Thieves broke into Dresden’s historic Green Vault and stole 18th-century treasures with an insurance value of at least €114 million ($121.5 million).

Mr Rohe said the case showed the tendency of some gang members to commit “spectacular crimes”, such as the previous theft of a giant gold coin from a Berlin museum that was also linked to the Remmo gang.

However, the unusual plea deals show that “these people are not impervious to the expectation of a long-lasting imprisonment”, he said.

Another clan crime expert, Mahmoud Jaraba, last week told The National that the deals could send the wrong signal to the underworld.

He said the arrangements, in which some culprits had their sentences reduced and were allowed to walk free pending appeals, could leave other gangsters feeling that “we can do what we want here, and without consequences”.