A few days before Easter, an 87-year-old grandmother took a call from someone claiming to be her granddaughter.
The caller said she was in desperate need of money and asked for at least 150,000 kronor.
“She said the money was for a surprise that would be unveiled when the whole family was together [at Easter],” said one of the 87-year-old’s actual granddaughters, Anna Lukasiak, to the Borås Tidning newspaper.
As the money was supposedly for a surprise, the caller requested that the 87-year old not tell anyone else in the family about the loan.
The elderly woman ended up handing over more than 100,000 kronor to a male acquaintance of the caller who came by the house to pick up the money because the fake granddaughter couldn’t make the trip.
“My grandmother trusted the woman who called because she thought it was her granddaughter,” said Lukasiak.
When the entire family had gathered to celebrate Easter a few days later, the grandmother asked her grandchildren to tell the rest of the family about the surprise, at which point everyone realized the old woman had been swindled.
““Evidence suggests that the person involved knows the family well,” said Sture Thorstensson of the Borås police department.