The 87-year-old Johannes from Roosendaal had never been called by his bank. Until June 14 this year. “There must be something wrong with my debit card and PIN. If they could come by in the evening with two people to hand in new passes.” He initially agreed. “But I started to have doubts. It didn’t feel right.”
Johannes decided to call his bank himself. “They knew nothing. I was called by scammers.” And so he called the police. Johannes ended up with detective Christiaan van den Berg and subsequently filed a report.
I knew right away they were scammers.
A few weeks later it happened again. Again Johannes was called by so-called bank employees. Thousands of euros were said to have been debited from his bank account, but they had secured the money and were happy to bring it over.
“I knew immediately that these were scammers,” says Johannes. “They were talking about amounts, well, I really don’t have that much money in my account!”
I played the game with the scammers.
Johannes again called the police. “I played the game with the scammers. The police would also come to my house at the time of the appointment, to catch them in the act.” But unfortunately, no bank employee ever came to the door. “I think they saw the police officers and knew I had them.”
That was also the intention, according to detective Van den Berg. “Sometimes we consider whether we want to catch a crook or scare them well,” he explains. “This time we opted for the deterrent.” That tactic has worked, because since then Johannes has not been harassed by fake bank employees.
Johannes is well aware that he was lucky to realize that they were scammers. “I’m very careful anyway,” he explains. “For example, I put a staircase in front of my door, so that there is a lot of noise when burglars break into my house.”
They won’t have me anymore.
And what tips does Johannes have for others? “Never open the door just like that, especially not when it’s dark. If in doubt, call the police and your bank. At least they won’t have me anymore!”