2 arrested for scamming elderly out of tens of thousands of euros
Police have arrested two men, aged 35 and 41, who scammed elderly people in the Athens area out of tens of thousands of euros by pretending to be employees of electricity utility PPC.
The two had been active over at least the past eight months, mostly in north and east Athens suburbs. Their method was to approach older people and pretend their electricity installation needed repairs or claiming that they were debt collecting agents seeking relatives of the old people who had failed to pay their bills.
According to police in the eastern seaside Athens suburb of Rafina, who made the arrests, the duo were convinving enough to get more than 60,000 euros from their victims, at least in the seven cases where they have been recognized by their victims. There might be more such cases.
Similar scams targeting the elderly have taken place before.