While we often hear tales of cybercrime and despicable scams tricking the innocent out of their hard-earned cash, we rarely get a satisfying story where we see what happens when the scammer becomes the scammed. This was exactly the case in Zug, Switzerland, after a 79-year-old managed to trick her would-be scammers into getting arrested by the police.
Our story starts on May 12 when the 79-year-old pensioner from Cham, Canton Zug, received a call from someone claiming to be from the local police. As is the case with many of the scams involving fake emergency services, the faux-police officer informed the lady that her money was no longer safe in her bank and needed to be withdrawn and given to them.
Luckily, the lady immediately smelt a rat, concluding that the officer must be a scammer. However, according to 20 Minuten, instead of hanging up on the scammer as many millions would have, she kept her landline running and hatched a devious scheme.
The next day as planned, the scammers called the lady’s mobile phone, instructing her once again to take her money out of the bank. Much to their delight, she obliged, travelling to her local branch in Cham to take all of her valuables out of her safety deposit box.
After several more calls, a young man showed up at the 79-year-old's home at 5.30pm the same day, supposedly ready to swipe the valuables and add to the long list of people swindled by sly scammers. However, much to his surprise, instead of jewels and bracelets, the man was given bracelets of a different kind, after he was arrested by real police officers as soon as he arrived.
It turned out that the woman had informed the police about the scam and had arranged for the authorities to be there to catch them in the act, a Zug police report revealed. The emergency services were also able to arrest another man in the vicinity related to the crime.
According to the police report, the two are German citizens aged 16 and 21. Criminal proceedings have now been opened against the two suspects.