With lies, fake police officers lure a lot of money out of their pockets, especially older people. German and Turkish authorities have been on the trail of organized call center scammers for years. Now they were successful.
Munich (dpa / lby) - Turkish and German security authorities have once again raised an international gang of telephone scammers. 30 people were arrested in call centers, mainly in the Turkish province of Mersin, but also in Izmir, Istanbul, Trabzon, Antalya and Denizli, the Munich police headquarters reported on Wednesday. Assets equivalent to almost 1.6 million euros as well as computer systems and office equipment were also seized. Those arrested are suspected of having robbed unsuspecting people, especially in large cities such as Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, as false police officers for years.
"We pulled the plug on at least these call centers and thus prevented further telephone fraud," said Desiree Schellhorn. She is deputy head of the Phenomena working group, which has been on the trail of organized call center fraud since 2017. The telephone fraudsters have built up a criminal network with complex infrastructures and made millions in the past few years. "Some extended families have built up real business structures with this scam and will try to continue them." Nevertheless, Schellhorn hopes that the arrests will act as a deterrent to other perpetrators.
German and Turkish authorities have been working together for many years to track down the suspected masterminds. Evidence was collected across countries in the utmost secrecy. The Munich I public prosecutor spoke of very lengthy and complex investigations. In this specific case, one has been investigating since 2020, among other things, against the main person responsible, who was arrested at his residence in Mersin. According to current knowledge, the damage caused by the gang is estimated at around 2.1 million euros.
At the end of September, the district court in the Turkish city of Izmir sentenced 67 men and women to prison terms, some of them long, for organized call center fraud and confiscated assets worth more than 60 million euros. The police in Munich had given the damage to the victims, who live mainly in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, at more than 120 million euros. The leader of the gang and other members were arrested in a raid in Izmir in December 2020.
