Serbia's Police Repeat Warning Over Phone Scams
The Criminal Police Directorate says phone scams are becoming more frequent. Callers pose as strangers and demand money for the treatment of a supposedly injured family member.
Serbia’s Ministry of Interior repeated its warning to citizens on August 12 over phone scams. The statement came from the Criminal Police Directorate, specifically its Crime Suppression Service. The reason given was a rising number of fraud cases carried out over the phone across Serbia.
The pattern is the same in every case described. Only the name of the relative who supposedly got hurt changes.
How the calls play out
Unknown callers phone citizens and give false identities. They tell the person on the line that a family member has been in a car crash or some other accident, then immediately demand an urgent payment to cover the supposed cost of treatment and surgery.
In some cases the demand goes beyond cash. Callers also ask for gold and other valuables.
Police say the suspects are counting on people’s fear and worry for the health and lives of their relatives. That is why they push for speed, giving the person on the line no time to call someone else and check what actually happened.
What the Interior Ministry advises
The advice in the statement comes down to a single point: verify before paying anything.
The Ministry of Interior advises citizens not to hand over or transfer money and other valuables to unknown persons without first checking the claims with family members, medical institutions or the relevant police station.
That verification, then, has three addresses:
- the family member said to be injured, or another relative
- the medical institution where the injured person is supposedly being treated
- the local police station with jurisdiction
Citizens are also advised to report any suspicious call of this kind to police without delay. A report matters even when no money changed hands, since it allows the number the call came from to be logged.
The ministry adds that it is working with the relevant prosecutor’s offices to identify and locate the people behind these crimes.
Why the same warning is being repeated
This is not the first appeal of its kind this year. The Interior Ministry issued the same warning in late May, just over two months before this one.
The August statement again describes the scams as increasingly frequent, using the same wording as the spring warning, which suggests the flow of reports did not slow down over the summer.
The scammers’ target is clear from the story they tell: someone who will believe a relative is in the hospital and who will not stop to find another phone number to check.
Prosecuting the crime of fraud falls to the public prosecutor’s office, while police handle the pre-criminal proceedings. Until a final verdict, those involved remain suspects, no matter how familiar the script of the call has become.
