Together, they warn of the perfidious scams that criminals use to enrich themselves with citizens' money and valuables. Fraudsters often pretend to be grandchildren, tradesmen or police officers and mercilessly exploit the good-naturedness or helpfulness of older people. They are always coming up with new scams and methods.

"At Sparkasse, we therefore take numerous security precautions to protect your money from being accessed by thieves and fraudsters. They in turn try to take people by surprise, put them under stress and confuse them in order to get their victims to hand over their money voluntarily after they have withdrawn it from their secure account (...)", says Dr. Joachim Bonn, CEO of Sparkasse Duisburg. He makes it clear: "Whoever wants to get your money will not like this brochure at all."

Duisburg Police Commissioner Dr. Elke Bartels hopes that the information in the brochure will help citizens to recognize in good time when they have been targeted by fraudsters and to react correctly if they are being "taken for a ride".

As a little help, the Sparkasse and the police have developed a special envelope that customers receive from the Sparkasse when they withdraw large sums of money. Six questions are printed on it. If at least two are answered with "yes", this could be an attempt at fraud.

"In this case, people should definitely call the police emergency number 110. My employees and I work every day to ensure that you can live safely in our city and that criminals are put a stop to it," says Dr. Elke Bartels.

3000 brochures have already been printed and are available in Duisburg's savings banks and police stations. "Help yourself, because knowing what the fraudsters are doing is the best protection," Dr. Bonn and Dr. Bartels agree.

The brochure is also available for download on the Duisburg police homepage at duisburg.polizei.nrw.