An 82-year-old from Petrela in February 2016 heads to the offices of Commissariat No.1 in Tirana, where he tells his acquaintance that he had deceived about 200,000 new leks. These money were mostly pension savings that he had given to his younger friend who would use them for business and would soon return it.
But after more than two years, the elderly, addresses the police in the hope that the officers will help him recover the amount he owed about a year ago.
M.D., born 1934, is probably the oldest age preacher who has been addressing the police over the past three months for financial frauds. But like him, during the first weeks of 2016, there are about 50 other persons who have filed criminal charges at police commissariats throughout Albania.
“Boldnews. al “, referring to official data from the State Police on criminal reports only in the last 3 months, has carried out an estimate of amounts given in the form of debt between citizens and not returned. The result is spectacular; over 1m euros, borrowed or liable, have not been returned to the rightful owners and the latter have turned to the Police to provide a way to regain their savings.
Cash flow outside the banking system is “Achilles heel” in the Albanian economy, which for the most part continues to be informal. The periodic initiatives of the Albanian governments, as well as the frequent appeals of the Bank of Albania, have not been able to convince the citizens of financial transactions through bank counters.
Low deposit interest rates, high interest rates on loans, as well as commissions that are not conducive to conducting bank transfers are among the main reasons that most Albanians continue to sell and purchase money in the primitive form, of cash granting.
Thanks to “trust” among acquaintances, family members or even lured by benefits from high interest rates, compared to banking, different citizens prefer to operate with their money outside financial institutions and often without formalizing lending to notary offices.
These extra-legal acts seem to make use of debtors to take over other people’s money and not return them. The real owners of the money, feeling deceived, address the State Police with the relevant statements to recover what they are entitled to. This problematic is spread over the years, while “Boldneës.al” has been focused only in the last 3 months.
In the lodged denunciations, it is found that the geographical extent of the fraud of this kind includes the entire territory of Albania. Also, the need for unpaid debts is very diverse. Unpaid amounts range from 2000 to 150 thousand euros.
The highest number of denouncements in recent months has been registered at the Tirana Commissariat, about 50 percent of the total. But fraud reports have been registered in Durres, Elbasan, Fier, but also in Kukes, Diber, Tropoja, Saranda, Gjirokastra and the following list.
Out-of-bank debts, always according to the denouncements, are mainly taken for purchase and arrangement of apartments. There are many cases where loans have been borrowed from the banking system for business creation or investment. There are also rare cases where considerable amounts, sometimes tens of thousands of euros, have been provided for the purchase of seedlings, fertilizers, fittings, heating and cooling systems etc.
In criminal reports to the Police there are also some special forms of fraud, related to computer systems. In Tirana and Durrës there are two cases of vehicle purchase via the Internet. In both cases, after paying the relevant amounts online, “sellers” have lost any trace.
Also, a “call center” company states that through their server intervention, calls have been made to Congo, Syria, Zaire, etc., in amounts up to $ 80,000.
Social networks have turned into an extremely effective way for online fraudsters. About 12 criminal reports during these first months of 2016 relate to financial scams in these popular networks already.
Of course, there are no cases of selling the same apartment more than a buyer.
The official sources of the State Police state that all criminal reports refer to respective prosecution. These sources say that, despite the reports that have been filed recently, for the most part, alleged fraud occurred in 2015 or even earlier.
