Two men, aged 35 and 29, were remanded in custody for eight days on Tuesday after posing as doctors to scam thousands of euros out of the elderly in Limassol.
The pair are believed to have stolen between €2,500 and €3,000 and an as-yet-unknown quantity of gold from an 80-year-old woman.
The recurrent scam to which many have fallen prey island wide, involves perpetrators who targeted mainly the elderly and exhorted money from them by keeping their victims on the phone while spinning the story that a person dear to them was in dire need of medical treatment.
“The men were arrested following another attempt targeting a Limassol couple,” police spokesman Christos Andreou told state broadcaster CyBC on Tuesday.
The later couple were not taken in by the scam, Andreou said, and promptly reported the incident to police, facilitating their arrest.
“The perpetrators are using a number from a European country and it is beyond doubt that more are operating on the island as well as abroad,” the police spokesman said.
“The public should remain vigilant even after arrests because the [criminals’] MO is to lay low after an arrest while they search for new accomplices in Cyprus before striking again,” he added.
In their latest attempt the scammers asked the Limassol couple for €35,000 for an operation needed by their son, who had allegedly been involved in a traffic accident.
After their arrest, police interrogated the two suspects who admitted their involvement, as well as in the case reported on October 5, where around €3,000 and gold jewellery were stolen from an 80-year-old woman in a similar way.
Limassol CID continues investigations.
