Due to a lack of time and capacity, the Dutch police are unable to investigate thousands of crimes per year. A family from West Brabant therefore enticed the criminals themselves into extorting their mentally retarded son online. A “crazy” story.
That Saturday afternoon in October 2016, Annie* unsuspectingly answers her phone. It is the fraud desk of the Dutch bank ABN Amro. “Or I knew that thousands of euros had been transferred from my son’s account in a few days.” Mother Annie’s life comes to a sudden halt. Her son Cees* is a mentally handicapped young man with autism: “With hard work in the construction industry, he had saved up a nice amount of capital. He wanted so badly to buy his own house.”
Annie and her daughter run up the stairs in panic, to Cees’s bedroom. “He was sitting there on the bed, with his bank card in the scanner. Ready to transfer another amount. His sister was able to take the bank card just in time.”
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