ANCONA A text message trap to steal money from the victim in question. On 5 June 2024, the electronic bluff was plotted against a 70-year-old from Ancona, induced by the fraudster to pay almost 2 thousand euros onto a prepaid card. That money, he had been led to believe, would be used to buy his son (who had just been robbed) a new telephone.
In aula
A year and a half after the events, the alleged fraudster – a 50-year-old from Forlì – was ordered to continue the trial during the pre-trial hearing. The man, with specific precedents, will have to face trial starting from February 13, 2026, before judge Pietro Renna. The 70-year-old who was defrauded took part in a civil action with the lawyer Arianna Benni. In total, he lost 1,800 euros. According to the prosecution’s reconstruction, the money ended up in the prepaid card registered to the accused and supplemented by two different top-ups.
According to what has been reconstructed, that day the 70-year-old had received a message on his cell phone from an unknown number. The sender appeared to be the son. «Dad help me, they stole my cell phone. Now I’m in a store to buy a new one, please send me some money.” The interlocutor had made the victim believe that the message he had just sent on Whatsapp had come from the mobile phone of the seller of the phone shop where his son was.
Transactions
The man had followed the instructions step by step, making two top-ups on the card that his son had indicated to him and which was not in his name. A first operation had led to the transaction of almost a thousand euros, the second of 850. Money that would have ended up in the hands of the 50-year-old. At least this is the accusation made by the prosecutor’s office. The man from Ancona had noticed the bluff when it was too late. He had called the cell phone which, in theory, should have been in the thief’s loot. The son replied: “Dad, I’m at work, I’m fine.” The curtain comes down on the scam.
