Overview
- German authorities brought two 39-year-old suspects from Offenbach to Germany after their arrest in Bucharest in early August 2026 and placed them under investigation by the Frankfurt public prosecutor.
- Investigators say the callers used scripted 'Schockanrufe' that posed as traffic police and told victims a relative had caused an accident and would face custody unless a bail payment was made.
- Prosecutors link the February 2026 calls to phone traffic routed from Spain that targeted people in Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland and Bavaria.
- Officials report those calls did not yield any money because victims recognized the scam or had no valuables, and a separate 33-year-old suspect from Hanau has been in pretrial detention since May.
- Police and prosecutors emphasize that the case shows cross-border cooperation is key to disrupting organised phone-fraud rings and that continued evidence gathering will determine charges and further detentions.