File photo.
A fake power company employee has talked an 85-year-old woman in northern Greece into handing him €20,000 in cash that she kept at home using a common but highly effective scam, police said Monday.
The 38-year-old man has been identified and charged with fraud over the incident last month in a village near the town of Ptolemaida, according to a police statement.
It said he belonged to a gang of scammers who phoned the elderly woman, told her she had a wiring problem and should put any cash kept at home outdoors in a pillow case to prevent it being damaged. When the 85-year-old was otherwise occupied, the suspect allegedly grabbed the money and left.
Such phone scams that target vulnerable people at home have become a major source of revenue for criminal groups, despite repeated public awareness campaigns and a string of arrests all over Greece.