The approach has been phone fraud, so-called “vishing”, where the men, according to the investigation, sent text messages to elderly people that appeared to come from Ikea.
The elderly then called and were convinced that they were connected to a security officer at their bank and then forced to transfer money. Then the money has reached the fraudsters.
For example, a 97-year-old woman got rid of 70,000 kroner, a 91-year-old 99,699 kroner and an elderly man 109,000 kroner.
The perpetrators filmed parts of the events themselves – see and hear how it looked in the clip below.
All three are convicted of fraud
On Monday, the men, two from Helsingborg and one from Bjuv, were convicted of several cases of fraud and attempted fraud.
Two of the men, 24 and 22 years old, get a year and a half and a year and three months in prison, respectively. The third, a 20-year-old man, is sentenced to probation. There, the district court has, among other things, seen his age as a mitigating factor.
They must also pay a total of just over 200,000 in damages to the victims.
District Court: All frauds not serious
As evidence, there are, among other things, the videos that the men took of themselves, which proves that they participated in the frauds. There is also a document with the fraud scheme and script that was found in one of the men’s phones.
The prosecutor wanted the crimes to be considered serious because the men had systematically cheated the elderly out of money. The district court states that it is a matter of systematic acts but not enough to be considered serious.
Regarding the age of the victims, the fraud committed against those over 80 is considered serious and the others as crimes of the normal degree.
The men deny any crime.