Romanian felons are very inventive when it comes to conning others. The “accident” method, used by many delinquents to cheat old people into paying them money has become notorious.

A convicted prisoner would call the targeted victim, usually an old woman (or man), and tell her that her son had caused an accident and was arrested. The convict would then pose as the son’s lawyer and ask the woman for money to help her son and would send an accomplice to pick up the money. Many people have fallen for this trick and handed their life savings to these criminals.

A recent case uncovered by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) shows how two felons have taken the scam to a much higher level.

A convict who is currently incarcerated in the Giurgiu Penitentiary apparently played the role of a corrupt DNA deputy chief prosecutor. He called people whose relatives were under arrest and claimed that he could help them with their cases. He asked one person to pay him EUR 50,000 in exchange for getting all criminal charges against that person’s relative removed.

He used an accomplice to collect the money. The accomplice himself also hired two other people to go and meet the person and collect the money, fearing that he might get caught by the police. On September 6, the person went and meet the two guys and paid them over EUR 3,000. The two men were caught in the act by the investigators, who then went after the scheme’s initiators.

Both the pretense prosecutor and his accomplice were arrested, according to DNA (although one was already in jail).

The DNA prosecutors then found more information on how the men operated. The convict would get his intel on who to call to offer his services by calling various police arrest centers throughout the country and asking for information about people who were under arrest. To get the information, which wasn’t public, he would again pretend to be DNA’s deputy chief prosecutor.

But the irony of the case is that the DNA charged the man with influence peddling, as if he really had the influence to temper with those cases, when, in fact, this was nothing more than a scam.

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Romanian phone hustlers conned by their very target: an 81-year old woman

editor@romania-insider.com