A concerted police crackdown in three parts of Greece involving counter-terrorism officers and drones has broken a highly organized gang of phone scam artists who made about €1.3 million in a few months, authorities said Monday.
Seven suspected gang members were arrested during the raids Friday in central Athens and Aharnes on the capital’s northwestern fringes, Corinth, and Iraklio on Crete, a police statement said. Police are also seeking a 23-year-old woman.
All face charges including fraud, computer fraud, money-laundering and aggravated theft.
Police believe the gang was active since at least December 2025 and was able to steal €1.29 million from 41 people in various parts of Athens, as well as Kozani, Katerini, Kavala, Naoussa, Drama, Veria, Halkidiki and Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
The statement said that the “organized and professional” gang was split into two sections – one that worked a phone center based near Corinth scamming vulnerable people, and another that had members all over Greece and moved into action once a potential victim had been hooked in their locality.
The scammers presented themselves as accountants, talking their victims into giving them cash or jewellery kept at home or, failing that, their banking or cashcard credentials. The most common story was that the cash and valuables would need to be registered to avoid taxation.
Once the victim was secured, a pickup team would be sent to collect the cash and valuables from their home or some other agreed point.
“There were many operational teams in direct communication with the phone center, ready to act all over Greece at any moment, using rented cars or cars belonging to relatives so as to be harder to catch,” the police statement said.
Such scams targeting – albeit in a non-violent fashion – elderly or vulnerable people who keep cash and valuables at home are extremely common and highly effective, despite repeated public awareness campaigns.
Police regularly announce arrests of suspected scammers all over Greece, but the crackdown announced Monday is one of the biggest in recent months.