A devious and well-planned scam was neutralized thanks to the timely intervention of the Carabinieri of the Ovodda Station, which restored peace and justice to a woman living in Tiana.
The events date back to September 2023, when a woman, a housewife, around 45 years old, received a message via the popular messaging app WhatsApp. The person—who was pretending to be her son in distress—urgently requested a sum of money, providing a new phone number and bank account.
The woman, taken by surprise and fearing for her son's safety, made an instant bank transfer of €800. A few minutes later, having completed the scam, the unfortunate woman contacted the Carabinieri in Ovodda to file a complaint. The investigation began immediately.
The police quickly traced the destination account—registered to a young man in his twenties, with no criminal record, residing in northern Italy—and secured the precautionary seizure of the funds, still in the account. The investigation then revealed that the account holder was himself the victim of a cyber attack: unknown individuals had unlawfully accessed his banking details to commit the fraud, completely without his knowledge.
The criminal proceedings against him were therefore dismissed at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Oristano, while the entire sum was returned to the victim, who was thus able to recover what he had lost.
