Fake police: Scammer arrested after being chased by officers on foot through city (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 1 week ago by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz

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A man who scammed people out of nearly $300,000 by pretending to be a police officer has been arrested.

On Monday the 25-year-old man, a UK national, was chased by police through Auckland central on foot.

The scam involved a call to a landline by someone pretending to be a police officer and providing a fake badge number.

There were 18 Aucklanders, aged between 56 and 90, with the majority over 80, allegedly duped out of money.

"The scam will always involve this so-called officer asking for financial information or asking you to withdraw cash to be collected as part of an investigation into banks," Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Bolton said.

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[-] liv@lemmy.nz 2 points 4 days ago

It's not all natural either. I've recently learned about anticholinergic burden and am annoyed I didn't know sooner because with the health system the way it is now (so many locums, no continuity of care, overworked hospitals) elderly people really need their family looking out for stuff like this.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Interesting, and good to know! I just assumed the cognitive decline of my grandmother's cognition was partly because her diet was 50% butter or thereabouts, but maybe there was more to it 🙂

[-] liv@lemmy.nz 2 points 2 days ago

Diet can do it too, e.g vitamin D deficiency also causes cognitive decline, and if doctors find out someone is eating 50% butter and puts them on statins (anti cholesterol) that causes reversible cognitive decline as well.

Bizarrely, with elderly people you also have to watch out for "silent" UTIs - they don't hurt so the person might not realise they have one and it causes really marked signs of dementia, eg they say really dementia-ish things. Antibiotics clears it up. I saw this one first hand and it was such a relief to actually figure it out and get the person back to normal.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 day ago

With my grandmother is was gradual over a really long time, but I'm curious about the anti cholesterol medication which she was almost certainly on. I'm learning about this a decade too late though 🫤

[-] liv@lemmy.nz 2 points 14 hours ago

Yeah I was kind of mentioning this stuff more because one day your parents will get old.

Statins have benefits that typically outweigh the side effects, and confusingly they seem to protect people from dementia as well as causing issues with memory and cognition. It's nothing to regret, just worth knowing it's a factor.