Pensioner loses over €90,000 in online fraud

An elderly Austrian lost almost 100,000 Euros in an internet scam, it has emerged.Police in Salzburg said today (Mon) that the 77-year-old man got in touch with them yesterday after having transferred more than 90,000 Euros to a bank account.The pensioner told officers that he was promised an undisclosed amount of money in an e-mail which he received more than two years ago. Hoping he would eventually receive the amount, the man kept transferring significant sums of money to the online conmen who claimed they needed to cover expenses before paying out the prize money.The defrauded man decided to inform authorities after having carried out 14 transactions, leaving him with losses of over 90,000 Euros.The Austrian interior ministry said recently that nearly 1,500 cases of so-called cyber crimes like bullying and fraud were recorded by police across the country in 2010, up from just 38 cases in the previous year.