Italian police arrest multiple suspects in spoofing scams defrauding seniors

The Polizia di Stato carried out coordinated raids in several Italian cities to dismantle a criminal network that used the spoofing technique to impersonate police officers and swindle elderly victims. In Napoli, six people aged 21 to 61 were detained for an organized fraud that earned roughly €500,000 from seniors aged 74 to 97. In Milan, two separate operations led to the arrest of five suspects – four men and one woman – who had extracted more than €100,000 in jewelry and cash from victims aged 84 to 98 after convincing them that false legal investigations required the surrender of their valuables.

The investigations relied on phone‑number spoofing to make calls appear to come from official law‑enforcement numbers, pressuring victims with fabricated claims of accidents or criminal involvement of family members. Authorities recovered the stolen assets, secured the victims’ cooperation, and placed the suspects in custody pending trial.