The gendarmes of the Vosges department (eastern France) have arrested six people following an investigation which lasted nearly a year. The suspects are being prosecuted for fraud and abuse of weakness. Their targets were elderly people to whom they promised miracle products at outrageous prices. Recently, they reportedly sold, for example, masks against the coronavirus at €1,500…

Six people were arrested recently after a thorough investigation by the gendarmes of the Vosges department. Everything started with a complaint for fraud and abuse of weakness, filed in July 2019 in the city of Gérardmer, said the gendarmes in a Facebook post relayed by France Bleu Sud Lorraine radio, on Friday, August 14.

The authorities then set out the criminals’ modus operandi. Those involved were contacting elderly people via a call centre in Morocco.

Products and masks offered by fake physiotherapists

Victims were promised “a valuable prize.” But to collect it, they had to attend a show where products were offered to them by so-called physiotherapists.

“It is actually a case of reselling cheap products at outrageous prices,” explain the gendarmes. The suspects would thus have taken advantage of the coronavirus health crisis to sell a “miracle mask” for €1,500.

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The investigation brigade of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges identified about a hundred victims all over France.

Out of the six persons arrested, three were held in pre-trial detention and three others were placed under judicial control. The gendarmes say they have discovered documents at their homes proving their involvement in this vast fraud.

A fraud worth “several hundred thousand euros”

The searches also led to the seizure of “luxury vehicles, jewellery, furniture and decorative items, and pending real estate worth €400,000,” the law enforcement officials said.

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According to the gendarmes, “the analysis of the authors’ bank accounts shows a profit of several hundred thousand euros resulting from the fraud”. An amount that could, in fact, be much higher since not all the victims have been identified.