The public prosecutor's office has announced that a 36-year-old man has been extradited from Italy to Luxembourg police under an international arrest warrant. The man is suspected of being part of a fraud group that used Luxembourg numbers to spread "shock messages", in particular what is known as 'mum and dad phone scams'.
According to the investigation, the man is alleged to have passed on a number of Luxembourg phone numbers to others, who then used them to contact potential victims in the Grand Duchy. More than 15 reports and complaints have been filed with police across the country in that context.
The 36-year-old was taken to the Uerschterhaff prison and was brought before an investigating judge on 24 July.
The investigation is ongoing.
"Hello Mum, my phone is broken. This is my new number..." – that is how scammers tend to open their approach in what is now known as the 'mum and dad' phone scam. In this kind of trick, the perpetrators manipulate their victims by posing as someone close to them, often a child.
After an initial message, in which they claim the child has lost their phone, the scammers quickly try to build a rapport and then invent an emergency. They may claim they can no longer access their account, for instance, or that they are running into some kind of problem with the authorities that requires them to transfer money urgently.
The aim is to get the victim to send money and hand over information.
Police and the public prosecutor's office advise members of the public to be extremely cautious with messages received from unknown numbers. People should check the identity of the person by contacting them on the old number, and be wary of any request to transfer money in a hurry.
Money should never be transferred on the basis of an SMS or a WhatsApp message alone, and any suspicious messages should be reported to police, authorities warn.
