Home complaints, if you can’t come, we’re coming.
The state police service for the over-65s and the disabled.
This is the slogan of this state police poster to help citizens in particular those over 65 years of age to behave attentively towards scams and scams and in case of doubts or suspicions to warn and report the facts.
In many public offices such as post offices, USLs, municipalities, etc. you will find hung these posters with 10 points that summarize the correct behaviors that help avoid scams and scams.
Accept the advice and disseminate this information.
Advice for the elderly
Do not open the door to strangers even if they wear a uniform or claim to be employees of utility companies.
Always check with a phone call from which service the workers who knock on the door were sent and for what reasons.
If you receive no reassurances, do not open for any reason.
Please note that no institution sends staff home to pay bills, refunds or replace fake banknotes wrongly.
If you have any problems and to clarify any doubts, please call 113.
When you make withdrawal or deposit operations in the bank or in a post office, possibly be accompanied, especially on the days when pensions are paid or on those of generalized maturities.
If you have any doubt that you are being observed, stop inside the bank or post office and talk to the employees or supervisors.
If this doubt assails you on the street, enter a store or look for a policeman or a safe company.
On the way out from the bank or post office, with money in your pocket, don’t stop with strangers and don’t get distracted.
Remember that no bank or post office cashier chases you down the street to detect an error in counting the money he handed you.
When using the ATM use caution: avoid operating if you feel observed.
Advice for children, grandchildren and close relatives
Do not leave your elders alone, even if you do not live with them make yourself feel often and be interested in their daily problems.
Always remind him to take all necessary precautions in contact with strangers.
If they have the slightest doubt, let them know that it is important to ask a neighbour for help or contact 113.
Remember, even if they don’t ask you, they need you.
Tips for neighbors
If you live in your building alone, exchange a chat with them every now and then.
Your friendliness will make them feel less alone.
If strangers knock on their door, please contact you to clear up any doubts.
Your presence will make them safer.
Report to 113 any abnormal or suspicious circumstances involving your elderly neighbor.
Advice for bank or post office employees
When an elderly man shows up at the counter and makes a disproportionate request for cash, you lose a minute talking to him.
It takes little to avoid a drama.
Explain to him that outside banks and post offices no employee carries out checks.
For any doubts please contact you.
Recurring scams
False gemstones: one of the most common scams.
A gentleman of reassuring appearance and in general middle age, he pretends to be a foreigner who for an emergency must reach the country of origin but has no liquid money available for the trip.
Stop a lady on the street and try to sell a ring or precious stones that would be worth 7 or 10 thousand euros, of course the lady in question would sell them for much less.
Pass another well-dressed gentleman who claims to be a jeweler with a lens to check the stones; and immediately after he offers to buy them for 5 thousand euros.
But the stranger insists that the old lady buy them.
And he often manages to convince her by giving himself 2/3 thousand euros
Fake charity: a well-dressed gentleman, 50/60 years old, sometimes with a foreign accent, pretends to be a doctor or a representative of a pharmaceutical company looking for a deposit to make a donation of medicines for charity.
Stop a gentleman on the street, normally in bourgeois neighborhoods, asking about this deposit: the gentleman obviously knows nothing.
Another person passes by who pretends to know where the depot is but says it’s been closed.
The donation can then only be made through notary but it takes a cash advance that the person in charge of the charity does not have available at that time.
The elderly man stopped on the street is convinced that he can contribute to charity by also obtaining a percentage if he provides the money he needs for the notary.
He is accompanied to collect a decent amount (even a few thousand euros) and then got in the car together with the two “cronies” to go to the notary.
Along the way the scammers remember that you will definitely need a stamp brand.
They stop in front of a tobacconi bar and ask the victim to go buy it.
As soon as the con man goes down, of course, they flee.
False inheritance: same procedure regarding a false inheritance to be handed over.
A gentleman is looking for an old friend to whom he should hand over money related to an inheritance.
Stop an elderly person to ask about that friend, but no one knows anything until a passerby, an accomplice of the crook, stops and says that person is dead.
The only solution is the notary but you need the advance.
Fake Inps, Enel or Inpdap officials: they show up at the door of older people under the guise of having to check their pension or contribution position; or even to check the gas, light counter etc. but they actually trick people by handing over money or stealing valuables or other valuables.
Remember that before checking homes, the authorities put up notices in the building.
The most e-mail and internet scams:
- Fake auction sales, with goods offered and never sent to customers or with inflated prices.
- Offering free services on the internet that then turn out to be paid or non-providing paid services or provision of services other than those advertised.
- Pyramid and multilevel business investment schemes.
- Business opportunities and franchises.
- Jobs at home with early purchase of material necessary to perform such work.
- Money loans (never granted) with an advance request for commission.
- False promises to remove negative information for obtaining credits (e.g. removing names from black-lists).
- False promises of credit card concession (with request for fee) to individuals with negative priors.
- Paid numbers (type 899) to call to discover a secret admirer or a fantasy win (of holidays, of items).
In most cases the scam attempt begins by sending an email to the potential victim.
In case of suspicion save the email and immediately inform the Police of Communications.
In fact, most adult and experienced “navigators” have learned to use a minimum of caution in interacting with those who don’t know each other, and such caution is generally enough to avoid nasty surprises.
If you know someone on the chat and decide to meet them live, giving the first date in a public and crowded place and not going to the appointment alone is a sufficient precaution to avoid nasty surprises.
It’s not the same for kids.
Their curiosity combined with naivety can put them at risk when they are approached online by people with bad intentions, for example with paedophiles.
For this reason, it would be appropriate to accompany the children in navigation and to teach them to always tell their parents about their browsing experiences.
As you can see it is important to communicate and presence more people friends, relatives, condominiums, neighbors, etc. with whom you need to talk and important calls always and alert law enforcement trying to provide detailed information because your help can avoid other scams so call without fear because they are there to help you.
Ps. This is for you that you are a son or daughter, never leave alone or room your family, when you were little they never left you alone.
Now it’s your turn!!
The Police Department is always available to the public for any doubt, for further information and for the reports of the case to the following telephone numbers: 113.
Stay Tuned!
Street Fight Mentality