5 detained in Portugal for scams targeting elderly

Four men and one woman were detained Monday for 13 scams targeting elderly people here, according to local media reports.

The suspects, aged between 21 and 41, whose nationalities were not identified, were detained after a year-long investigation.

According to reports, the group identified elderly victims who appeared to be middle-class and pretended to be old acquaintances of the elderly person's friends and family, in order to gain access to their personal information.

The suspects told the victims they were going to open a store selling household appliances and then offered the elderly people promotional gift like "discounts" when purchasing goods like watches of cameras which they sold for much higher values than their worth.

The commander of the division of criminal investigation has called people and especially the elderly not to trust these kinds of approaches. Endite