Sandra, Maria and Tiny have been brought up very nicely. You help someone in need. So if someone at the door asks for a glass of water, you will get it. But if it is on retired police officer Bert Nieuwenhuis, it is better not to do that. You open the door for a possible scammer. “I am sorry that you can rely no one anymore,” says Sandra. “Both on the computer and at the door.” The elderly are increasingly the target of all kinds of scams. And feel that way too.
Sandra, Maria and Tiny are in a full room in Liessel on Thursday afternoon. The police are coming to tell the elderly about fake agents and other scum. Fake agents in particular are sneaking around more and more often. Recently a few were picked up in Eindhoven.
District police officer Luc Dirckx was also able to grab a fake agent in the collar in Deurne. “A man was supposedly called by the police. He did not trust it and called his son. We were able to wait for the fake agent. That boy worked for a grouping in Eindhoven. Often it is the poor sloebers that we grab and the rest gets away with it. ”
“We had people who had issued all the valuables”
It is often the same method. An older person is called by ‘the police’. Burglars were picked up. And during interrogation it appears that the burglars were planning to break into the victim. But the ‘police officer’ knows what to do. The police come by and take the precious items in custody.
“We have had people who have issued all the valuables,” says Bert Nieuwenhuis. Are you called this way? Hang up and call the real police back to be sure. Is the fake agent at the door anyway? Call 112. “I would just do that,” says Bert. “It’s blood sprout. There is a scammer at your door. ”
“I trust everyone”
The fake agent does not even need a good uniform. Just a yellow vest with police on it. “You can buy it on the internet,” says Bert. “They then have a vague pass with them.” It remains difficult for people to be able to assess a pass. Also because the police have new copies. The name of the agent is no longer on it. It happened too often that names were looked up on the internet and that the agent was bothered by it.
Bert says that last year eight hundred elderly people in East Brabant were scammed. The damage: 40 million euros. The room is ongoing. “I trust everyone,” says Maria. “I don’t even have a second lock on my bike.” Bert Nieuwenhuis shows how the elderly can all be scammed and that they are consciously a target. The younger listener can also get nervous.
“You can always become a victim, you can’t prevent that”
Spoofing, phishing, fake bank employees, pickpockets, chat tricks, fake employees of home care, fake agents, fake package deliverers, watching during debit card or fake care workers who offer you a Coronaprik. Are you walking with a walker or stool? You are a target. Is the mobility scooter coming? Target. Do you live alone and are you above 65? Target.
“You have to be very suspicious,” says Tiny. “You can’t help anyone anymore. And that is very bad, because we were not raised that way. You always have to be alert. And then you can be the victim. You can’t prevent that. ” Sandra does not always feel safe anymore. “They think we understand less than the youth and then they grab you.”
Bert Nieuwenhuis, who worked with the police for more than 40 years and was involved in preventing crimes, is almost taken by a fake bank employee. “I just believed that lady. But I pushed her away because I had to go to the dentist. When I called the bank, it turned out to be incorrect. I almost had to tell my children that their father, forty years with the police, had lost all his money. “
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