Oslo police warn of fake police or bank scam, boy abducted from child welfare services returned to Norway, and more news from Norway on Wednesday.
Oslo police warn of fake police or bank scam
A growing number of old people, particularly women, are being targeted by scammers who call them pretending to be from the police or from their bank, Oslo police have said in a press release.
“The modus operandi is that the person making contact by telephone states that they are from the police or the bank. They introduce themselves by name and which department they are calling from,” the press release reads.
The fraudsters then give a fake case number and say that the victim has been subjected to bank fraud, with DNB the bank most often mentioned. In the press release, the police repeated that they will never ask for sensitive information such as BankID or card details over the phone.
Jan Davidsen, head of the Norwegian Pensioners’ Association, encouraged elderly people to contact police if they have been victims of fraud.
“It is important to emphasize that fraud is about professional manipulation, not about age or intelligence. Fraudsters are skilled at playing on emotions such as fear, trust and time pressure, and this can affect people of all ages,” he told NTB in an email. “No one should feel like they have been ‘stupid’ if they are deceived.”
Norwegian vocabulary: bedrageri – fraud
Boy abducted from child welfare services returned to Norway
A boy who was allegedly abducted from child welfare services in Bergen has been returned to Norway after being located by police in Sweden.
The mother and stepfather of the boy were charged in June with subjecting the boy to violence after the boy was taken into emergency care. A few weeks later, however, the boy was abducted and taken abroad.
Police believe the accused carried out the abduction to prevent the child from being looked after by child welfare services.
Last week the two parents were remanded in custody, with restrictions on mail and visits and partial isolation. A third person has also been charged with assisting the parents. The two parents maintain their innocence.
Norwegian vocabulary: en hastevedtak – an emergency measure
Liberal youth party calls for cuts to grants to Muslim organisations
The youth wing of Norway’s Liberal Party has called for the government to cut the grants it gives to Muslim religious communities in the wake of the terror attack on a Pride celebration in Berlin on Saturday.
“After the terrorist attack at the London Pub and now in Berlin, the response from Islamic religious communities has been toothless,” the youth party leader Omar Svendsen-Yagci told the Aftenposten newspaper.
He said Norwegian politicians needed to make clearer demands on Muslim religious communities, and that state support should be cut if communities oppose same-sex marriage, and other liberal reforms.
The Muslim Dialogue Network (Muslimsk Dialognettverk) which promotes dialogue between religious communities, called the proposal “unconstructive”, pointing out that his group invited religious leaders and gay activists to a dialogue ahead of the 2022 Pride celebration.
“We should not punish those who can be important partners in society,” he said.
Norwegian vocabulary: tannløs – toothless
Court orders man held for attempted murder
Trøndelag District Court has ordered a man in his 20s to be remanded in custody for three weeks for attempted murder after he allegedly attacked a woman in Trondheim on Sunday evening. According to the Adresseavisen newspaper, the man has been banned from receiving letters or visits for the entire period.
The women, who police say is in a family relationship with the accused, alerted the police on Sunday, claiming to have been the victim of a serious violent incident. Police have not disclosed what injuries she suffered but she is not being treated in hospital.
“As it stands now, we believe there is no basis for the charge,” the man’s defence lawyer, Jasmin Gheshlaghi, told the newspaper before the ruling.
She said that her client acknowledged that there had been a ‘situation’, but denies that it was an attempted murder.
Norwegian vocabulary: en drapsforsøk – an attempted murder