Overview
- State and federal forces are running a week of posters, phone-in hours, local briefings and information drops in senior facilities to raise vigilance and encourage reports.
- Officials describe tactics in which callers pose as relatives or police, press for large payments or handovers via couriers, and increasingly use WhatsApp with “new number” messages.
- NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul warns of multimillion-euro losses each year and says many victims stay silent out of shame, leaving a large number of unreported cases.
- Data from LKA NRW show thousands of 2024 incidents tied to foreign-based groups, relatively few but costly successes, and limited clearances, underscoring organized cross-border involvement.
- In the Verden area, fresh waves of false-police calls were reported and often foiled by wary residents, as police promote family codewords, social media outreach and immediate verification with known numbers.