Combating Crime Against the Elderly, especially "grandchild tricks"

Telephone fraud, including the so-called grandchild tricks and shock calls using the traffic accident legend, to the detriment of elderly people, has been a massive problem in almost all European countries as well as the USA and Canada for years. Elderly people belong to a particularly vulnerable social group. The acts have a devastating effect on the victims. In addition to the loss of one's savings, there is a massive feeling of shame towards relatives, which often leads to post-traumatic stress disorders or can even result in suicidal acts.

The offenders come from large family groups that are isolated from the outside world, many of them have their roots in the Republic of Poland. In Poland, a large number of senior citizens also become victims of these crimes every year.

With the help of the ISF LUMEN project, the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation Berlin, as the responsible department for this sub-project, is pursuing the goal of expanding and intensifying the long-standing cooperation with the Polish law enforcement authorities. The existing expertise is to be made available to the EU member states by means of a concept for combating these phenomena, which has been developed over many years, in order to strengthen and expand the international network and the necessary transnational cooperation.

The top priority is to identify and arrest the upper management levels of cross-border organised grandchild trick gangs and ultimately bring them to justice in Poland and Germany in a way that can be proven.

The aim of this sub-project is to expand the international network and the associated police and judicial response strategies, to extend them to other affected European countries and ultimately to establish them sustainably in Europe.

For this purpose, this subproject realises:

• International conferences involving investigative services of EU Member States and judicial authorities
• International working meetings at case officer level on operational combating and the implementation of investigative measures
• Procurement of technology for more effective and efficient law enforcement
• Prevention measures to raise awareness among EU citizens