New evidence reveals how a criminal organization extracted over 3.4 million euros from elderly victims by impersonating DEDDIE (Greece’s electricity distribution operator) employees. Parapolitika.gr obtained the phone conversations conducted from the organization’s makeshift call center in West Attica, through which they approached victims with clearly pre-obtained personal information.
These conversations are extremely critical and the entire population should be aware of the modus operandi of these organizations, which sometimes appear as DEDDIE technicians, other times as accountants, and sometimes as plumbers. Moreover, this organization, which was dismantled by the Economic Crimes Unit of the Financial and Economic Crime Division, is not the first to face justice and apparently not the last. In 2025 alone, thousands of phone scams and attempted frauds were recorded, resulting in the loss of many millions of euros in cash, valuables and jewelry from corresponding numbers of households.
See the conversation below. The unfortunate 80-year-old woman, in her confusion, obediently follows the ruthless organization member, performing every action he instructs. What he tells her to do is inherently absurd. However, with the way he speaks to her, with the words he weaves into his speech flow, the 80-year-old is convinced and leaves her valuables in a container outside her home, while notice how he convinces her to open the front door:
80-YEAR-OLD: Hello.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Great, can you hear me? Can you hear me?
80-YEAR-OLD: Yes, hello.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Great, now will you go to your kitchen?
80-YEAR-OLD: Yes
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: And turn on a burner to level 3.
80-YEAR-OLD: What should I put on it? Should I put, what should I put on it, a coffee pot you said?
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Put a coffee pot with water.
80-YEAR-OLD: Should I put more water so it doesn’t boil quickly, wait. Let me put a little more water, half a minute. Yes, my boy, I’m an 80-year-old woman, very old.
80-YEAR-OLD: I’ll lower it to one. Okay.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Very good. Great, the bowl with the jewelry that you’ve placed.
80-YEAR-OLD: Bowl with jewelry I have in the nightstand, in the bedroom.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Great, it’s resting on a wooden surface then?
80-YEAR-OLD: Yes, on wooden. I have the batteries here on the wooden table too.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Now we’re waiting a bit to lower the electrical voltage, that’s why you put the coffee pot on. The water will heat up a bit to lower the electrical voltage.
80-YEAR-OLD: And will you tell me?
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Yes, I’ll inform you. Don’t worry.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Mrs. S… to send the update that you’ve followed the necessary instructions, tell me what floor you’re on?
80-YEAR-OLD: I’m on the second floor. Will someone come here?
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: No, no one will come by, we just want confirmation that Mrs. S… on the second floor has followed the necessary instructions and is ready for the blackout.
80-YEAR-OLD: Won’t I have electricity?
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: I’ll inform you now immediately, just so the blackout happens quickly and doesn’t last long. I need you to take a bag, a plastic or paper bag, whatever you have. And place the bowl with the jewelry inside.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Please, ma’am, the procedure must be done correctly to avoid detecting electrical leaks. If leaks are detected, the gold jewelry will cause radiation, meaning besides.
80-YEAR-OLD: Wait half a minute. Okay. Only the gold items. Okay?
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Now I want you to go to the intercom and press the button that opens it, press it 3 times repeatedly.
80-YEAR-OLD: Okay, alright?
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: I need you to go to the door, to the apartment entrance door. Go to the apartment door.
80-YEAR-OLD: Yes
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Great, place the little bag on the doormat.
80-YEAR-OLD: Okay, I placed it.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Very good now, I need you to go to the bedroom
80-YEAR-OLD: I went, the door, should I have the door open. Should I go to the bedroom?
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: You’ll open and close it, yes, 8 times.
80-YEAR-OLD: I’m starting 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: The electrical loading is happening. Oh, I forgot to inform you, Mrs. S… yes, about the banknotes because they contain a European metallic strip that’s sensitive to electrical leakage. If there are banknotes, you’ll also need to put them in a plastic bowl.
80-YEAR-OLD: My money I have inside there. I haven’t taken it out. I have it inside in the bedroom.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: On the wooden table in your living room you’ll leave them and I need you to go see if you have other envelopes with money.
80-YEAR-OLD: Yes sir.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Go to the intercom again. Press that button you pressed 3 times again.
80-YEAR-OLD: I’ve opened it, yes.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Very good. Discharge.
80-YEAR-OLD: Helppppp.
80-YEAR-OLD: You took my money and jewelry.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: What happened, what happened, tell me.
80-YEAR-OLD: Two people came and took my money and jewelry.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: It’s the technician, we sent him. He’ll bring you back your things soon.
80-YEAR-OLD: Wait, let me call, who should I call, 100? Should I call the police? 100, wait, 100.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Okay, we’ve recorded your things and money, you’ll get them back.
ORGANIZATION MEMBER: Okay, he’s bringing them to you now, we’ve located him and we’re bringing them to you now. Listen to me carefully. Can you hear me?
The next conversation shows a failed fraud attempt. Nevertheless, the way the perpetrator approaches his conversation partner is critical. At the same time, the surname the perpetrator uses is “NOMIKOS” (meaning “legal” in Greek). This is a favored tactic of these organizations, which systematically choose euphonious surnames with prestige, while sometimes using politicians’ names that victims have heard many times in their lives and therefore seem familiar:
Victim: Yes
Perpetrator: Good evening
Victim: Hello
Perpetrator: Mrs. Eleni?
Victim: Yes
Perpetrator: NOMIKOS Ioannis is my name, I’m calling from DEDDIE headquarters, have you received correspondence about the electrical leak
Victim: What if I have?
Perpetrator: Have you received mail about the electrical leak:
Victim: No, we don’t have a leak.
Perpetrator: Let me inform you, ma’am. Some ground excavations were done and a technician cut the grounding cable. Can you hear me
Victim: I don’t know
Perpetrator: You live on that street, correct?
Victim: Yes
Perpetrator: Can you go to your electrical panel now to see that the red light is blinking.
Victim: Go to the panel to see if it’s blinking.
Perpetrator: The red light, correct? Yes.
Inside your house.
Victim: Wait
Perpetrator: Are they blinking or steady?
Victim: They’re steady.
Perpetrator: Very good, I’ll inform you that in 15 minutes there will be a blackout, the electricity will go out.
Victim: Yes.
Perpetrator: Can you hear me, while we’re talking I want you to go to your stove burners and turn them on to level 3
Victim: Yes.
Perpetrator: The landline is cordless
Victim: Yes
Victim: Yes
Perpetrator: Come on Mrs. Eleni, the line dropped, don’t hang up, take the mobile with you
Victim: Yes, what do you want
Perpetrator: Have you turned on the stove burners?
Victim: Yes
Perpetrator: To level 3
Victim: Yes
Perpetrator: Half a minute to measure it. Very good, turn it off now.
Victim: Yes
Perpetrator: You turned it off
Victim: Yes
Perpetrator: The normal electricity you should have had was 25 and you have more, 47, you’re using more kilowatts. Can you hear me?
Victim: Yes, I hear you
Perpetrator: Now I want you to get a basin while we’re talking so I can do the blackout, turn off the electricity
Victim: Well anyway
Perpetrator: Can you hear me?
Victim: Yes, I hear you
Perpetrator: Get a basin please
Victim: What should I do with the basin?
Perpetrator: I’ll tell you what we’ll do, ma’am, as I said there will be a blackout and you might catch fire, get electrocuted, so put any gold and money you have in the basin so you won’t get electrocuted.
Victim: Are you kidding me?
Perpetrator: What are you saying, ma’am?
Victim: Why are you fooling me?
Perpetrator: If you want, call 11500 for information
Victim: Okay
The next conversation shows how the “collection” teams that gather the gold and cash locate the apartment that the phone operators have undertaken to deceive. It’s evident that besides the phone operator, very close to him is a coordinator who communicates with members of the “collection” team. The coordinator hears what the phone operator and victim say, while asking for descriptions and information from the third party. Thus the “collection” team has a picture of both the floor and apartment characteristics. At the same time, under the pretext of testing the intercom function, the coordinator informs the team when they should be in front of the entrance door to enter the building:
COORDINATOR: Come on
COORDINATOR: Go in from the side to the balcony
COLLECTION TEAM: Okay
COORDINATOR: In one minute
COLLECTION TEAM: One minute? Will you be inside?
COORDINATOR: The first balcony [Unintelligible phrase (Roma dialect)]
COLLECTION TEAM: [Unintelligible phrase (Roma dialect)] Brown doors
COORDINATOR: The doors are brown, he says
PHONE OPERATOR: (…) Very good
PHONE OPERATOR: (…) Press that button seven, eight times. Press, release but when you press it, hold it down a bit
COLLECTION TEAM: We lost the number. At 4? At five next door
PHONE OPERATOR: (…) Can you pass the phone and hold it?
COLLECTION TEAM: Okay
COLLECTION TEAM: B. K.? [Unintelligible phrase (Roma dialect)]
COORDINATOR: L…
COLLECTION TEAM: Yes
COORDINATOR: The first balcony [Unintelligible phrase (Roma dialect)]
COLLECTION TEAM: [Unintelligible phrase (Roma dialect)]
There’s nothing [Unintelligible phrase (Roma dialect)]
COORDINATOR: Damn it
