News report | 26-01-2026 | 16:29
The Public Prosecution Service demands 4 months imprisonment against a 37-year-old man from Rotterdam. He is suspected of fraud. The suspect posed as a bank employee and collected money, debit cards, and PIN codes from an elderly man. In reality, the elderly gentleman was a police officer.
The 37-year-old man is one of the suspects who were ‘phished’ by the police during an undercover week last February. After the police entered fictitious details of an elderly man on a phishing site, the man was called by a scammer. The scammer informed him that there was something wrong with the elderly mans bank card. The bank card was to be collected at the door, and the cash present had to be put in an envelope. The scammers then came to the door to collect the items and were subsequently arrested.
The public prosecutor: “These kinds of scams are difficult to compare with ‘ordinary fraud’. The frauds presented here hit victims very close. Victims, often elderly people, are called at home, in their own familiar environment, by someone posing as a bank employee. This person is often on the line with the elderly person for hours to gain their trust, ask about valuables, and essentially ‘search’ the victims’ homes in this way. These acts seriously undermine the feeling of safety and trust in others and also cause a great sense of shame.”
The Public Prosecution Service believes that this type of fraud cannot simply be settled with a fine. Such frauds resemble home burglaries. Instead of a crowbar, the scammer uses a phone. While a home burglary involves a serious invasion of peoples privacy by entering their homes to take items, here there is an equally serious violation of both the privacy and trust of the victims.
The judge gave an immediate verdict and imposed a prison sentence of three months, of which two months are conditional.