GA English on Sunday News in Brief for the Weekend

Bonn · Police are seeking help from the public in their search for a missing 16-year-old girl; fraudsters have been sending out fake invoices in the name of the Bonn district court; the Deutsche Post strike continues meaning a further delay in post and parcel delivery.

GA English on Sunday: News in Brief for the Weekend
Foto: Ulrich Felsmann

Police use dogs to search for missing girl

The Bonn police have released a photo of a girl they have been searching for since Thursday and are seeking help from the public. The girl, whose name is Diamond, had left her parents' flat in Bonn's Weststadt on Monday to go to a friend's house in Auerberg. There, the 16-year-old spoke to her friend briefly at the front door at around 4.10 p.m. before leaving on foot in an unknown direction. There are currently no clues as to her whereabouts. A tracking dog followed the trail of the missing girl from Auerberg to the Friedrich-Ebert-Brücke (A565). The 16-year-old is said not to have had a mobile phone with her.

Diamond is about 1.55 metres tall, of slender build, with long black hair and dark eyes. She wears orthodontic braces. On the day she disappeared, she was wearing a grey sweatshirt, a black hooded jacket, green trousers, a yellow jumper and black and white Nike sports shoes. She was carrying a black Nike backpack. The police can be contacted on 0228/150 for information.

Fraudsters send fake invoices in the name of the Bonn district court

Fraudsters have been sending out invoices in the name of the Bonn District Court asking recipients to transfer money to the commercial register (Handelsregister). According to the fake letters, the recipient has three days to transfer a high three-figure amount to an account given on the letter. If they fail to pay, a reminder fee of 25 euros will be withdrawn from their bank account, the letter says.

The money is allegedly owed to the commercial register, which is part of the district court (Amtsgericht). "The commercial register is publicly accessible," explains Bonn police spokesperson Robert Scholten, which means that fraudsters may have been able to find a clue on which to base their fraud. In other words, if you are listed on the commercial register, you are a potential target for fraudsters.

"This works. If a hundred people receive this kind of invoice and only two of them transfer the money, that's great for the fraudsters," says Scholten. Cases like this are familiar to the police nationwide. The public prosecutor's office in Bonn also confirmed this at the GA's request: "Such cases are known here and throughout the country". According to the police spokesperson, the number of reported fraud cases of this kind in Bonn in the past two weeks is in the low single figures.

The police recommend contacting them as soon as we suspect that such a letter might be a forgery. Because once you have transferred money, it’s not usually easy to get it back. "It is difficult to track down fraudsters. It's similar to telephone fraud," Scholten said. The perpetrators usually register accounts under false names, which makes it difficult to identify them, he said.

Recognising fraud: Tips and tricks

The police and the public prosecutor's office say it’s better to avoid falling for a scam by looking for errors or conspicuous features on the letter. "I showed the letter to my colleague, and she saw it immediately," Scholten reports. The IBAN of the commercial register’s alleged account started with LT - that is the abbreviation for Lithuania. With official invoices from German authorities, a foreign IBAN is usually a sure sign of attempted fraud. If you want to be sure which country the IBAN comes from, you can check it online at iban-rechner.de. "You’ll immediately see the correct country," says the police spokesperson.

Prosecutor Alexander Klingberg also says: "There are several clear features of a forgery." On the letter, which the GA has seen, is the NRW state coat of arms. But underneath it only says "Amtsgericht", instead of the correct "Amtsgericht Bonn". In addition, there is a dodgy register mark, and the paying office is wrongly indicated.

Verdi continues postal warning strike

One million parcels and three million letters will probably not reach their recipients on time. On Saturday, the Deutsche Post service strike action was shifted to the delivery staff.

According to the postal service on Saturday, collection and delivery of letters and parcels could be delayed by several days. In some regions, the difficult weather conditions caused by the onset of winter would also have a negative impact.

As things stand now, around one million parcels and three million letters were affected on Saturday. This corresponds to about 15 per cent of the average daily volume of parcels and six per cent of letters.

A Deutsche Post spokesperson reports that participation in the strikes varies from region to region and location to location, and the impact varies accordingly. A total of about 9,400 workers responded to the call for strike action, which is slightly more than a third of the workers scheduled to work on Saturday.

According to the Verdi union, about 15,000 workers took part in the strikes in the letter and parcel centres on Thursday and Friday. This could affect deliveries for days. A union spokesperson said that a total of 30,000 workers had taken part in the warning strikes nationwide since Thursday and Saturday.

In the collective bargaining conflict, Verdi is demanding 15 percent more money for a period of one year. Deutsche Post rejected this as unfinanceable. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for February 8th and 9th.

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