Scammers also strike in large parking lots, where they pretend to be gentlemen, making their victims believe they have lost coins from their purse.
This time, however, even a mother or young woman would have fallen for it. The latest trend originated in Pavia, specifically in the parking lot of the Carrefour shopping center on Via Vigentina, a busy area and therefore a safe and easy target.
The scam in question is the coin scam. The person who lost the money and documents contained in her purse was a seventy-year-old woman from Pavia. But what exactly is it? According to the woman's account, once she finished shopping, she headed for her car. She took her keys out of her purse, opened the trunk, left her groceries, opened the door, got into the driver's seat, and automatically placed her purse on the passenger seat. So far, everything was normal. But the best part came just as she was about to start the car. At this point, a man, whom she describes as "short and with a southern accent," knocked on her window and pointed out that, in her haste, some coins had fallen out of her purse. The confident woman opened the door, looked out, saw several one-euro coins on the ground, and picked them up. Meanwhile, the man took advantage, grabbed her purse, and ran away. Only after picking up the coins did the woman realize she had been scammed and had been robbed. She was escorted home by the police and filed a complaint, as is standard procedure, but even the parking lot cameras were unable to identify the thief.
Never trust, not just strangers, but anyone who pretends to be kind and considerate. After various scams targeting elderly people, scammers are now becoming "gentlemen" and even leaving you a few coins. In the past, we've seen a wide variety of disguises: fake postmen, fake plumbers, fake police officers, fake preachers of peace and goodness, fake priests who enter under the pretext of blessing the house, fake Enel workers, fake firefighters, or even the kind gentleman who steals a purse from the cemetery and then returns it to the unfortunate woman's home, reporting the miraculous find. Once inside, he starts raiding. Now, elderly people are neither safe inside nor outside their homes. So beware of those who knock on our backs as a favor; it's best to ignore them and keep going, no matter what.
