A man was arrested yesterday for aggravated fraud in Sassari by officers from the Police Headquarters' Flying Squad: he is accused, in conjunction with individuals still unknown, of defrauding an elderly Sassari resident.
The victim had contacted the police because he had been contacted by an unknown number and had been fraudulently convinced to invest his savings in online trading operations.
In the last call, the “voice” had asked him to pay a further sum to unlock the proceeds of previous investments.
Over time, various sums of money had been stolen from the elderly man, totaling approximately €200,000. All the money transfers were made via wire transfers to foreign accounts and prepaid cards. The victim was no longer able to respond to the requests through the banks, so he agreed to hand over a final tranche of €15,000 in cash, right there in Sassari.
But the officers also showed up at the meeting, and when the suspect, who had arrived that morning on a flight from Milan, took the envelope with the money from the elderly man, they intervened and arrested him.
The young man is now in Bancali prison.