A 67-year-old man in a village near Lamia, central Greece, foiled a phone scam by handing con artists a bag of rocks and corn instead of cash and gold, leading to the arrest of all three suspects, a court has heard.
The scam began Friday when a caller posing as the man's accountant claimed a "tax authority satellite" was scanning the area to record residents' assets, and told him to gather cash and valuables in a bag and leave it outside his house.
Recognizing the ruse, the man alerted police and played along, telling the caller he had packed 12,000 euros and 85 gold sovereigns worth more than 74,000 euros — but he actually filled the bag with stones and corn.
He left it under a cemetery cypress tree as instructed, then falsely told the scammers by phone that he'd moved it to a nearby fountain, luring them straight into a police ambush.
Officers arrested two men, ages 34 and 43, driving a black Jeep with fake magnetic license plates over its real ones, and detained a 28-year-old woman near the cemetery whose phone showed active navigation to the site.
The men told the court they had gotten lost en route to buy scrap metal; the woman said she believed she was retrieving documents and had been blackmailed into complying.
A Lamia court convicted all three of attempted fraud and forgery.
The 34-year-old, who had prior armed-robbery convictions, was sentenced to three and a half years and sent directly to prison; the other two received shorter, suspended sentences.
The court also ordered seizure of the Jeep and the phones used in the scam.