The Police and the state-owned Banco República de Uruguay investigate the theft of more than $600,000 from a woman through the “uncle’s story” modality through which victims are targets of scams through telephone calls and especially the older population.
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The president of Banco República, Salvador Ferrer, told the press this Tuesday that “it is not usual” for an elderly person to go to the bank to withdraw “so much money” so he assured that the bank has a protocol for these cases.
“When there are these types of cases, it is normally a matter of discouraging when it is an elderly person who shows up in a box and one may have a certain suspicion of vulnerability,” he said.
This Monday, a woman received a call from a supposed accountant at the state bank who asked her to hand over all the cash she had in her possession and that a third person would come to her home to collect it.
The victim confirmed that he had only $2,000 under his belt, so the scammers asked him to go to a bank branch to withdraw the $600,000 obtained after the sale of a property.
In that sense, Ferrer pointed out that at the moment he does not know if the woman withdrew the money through a chest or through a cash register. “In the case of the chests there is no type of control. The person puts in and takes out of a chest whatever he wants,” and added that so far there is no complaint that would allow us to proceed to clarify the details.
However, the head of the Montevideo Police, Mario D’Elía, pointed out on the local television program Arriba Gente that there are elements to “move forward quickly” in the investigation.
“The speed of the investigation goes hand in hand with the collaboration of the people and other actions that we are taking, which have to do with the Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary. We believe that we can have a positive result,” he said.
The police agency is in the process of reviewing the city’s video surveillance cameras to try to identify the perpetrators of this scam.
EFE
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