Munich (dpa / lby) – In Munich, a couple saw through an attempted telephone scam and thus helped to catch a perpetrator. As the police announced on Monday, the 70-year-old had already received a call from a woman posing as a police officer on Thursday. The stranger lied to the elderly woman that her daughter was in prison and could only be released on bail.

The attentive senior recognized the scam and had her husband call the police at the same time. Meanwhile, she continued to have the wrong officer on the phone and even simulated a cash withdrawal from the bank. The scammer instructed the 70-year-old to hand over the money to an alleged court clerk. When the accomplice showed up, the real cops were able to arrest the man at the front door. An arrest warrant was issued for the 34-year-old.

The police report almost daily about such cases of fraud, which often come from organized call centers abroad. Seniors are often deprived of large sums in this way. The scam that relatives are in custody is currently particularly popular with criminals. A few weeks ago, a pensioner in Munich handed more than 400,000 euros to a fake police officer after he claimed that her son had caused a serious accident and would have to be arrested if nobody paid the high bail.