"Rosen" veteran Antonius falls for shock calls
The Austrian actress Brigitte Antonius (90) fell for con artists at the permanent filming location of the ARD telenovela "Rote Rosen" in Lüneburg. She received a call from an alleged police inspector saying that she was on a list of elderly people who were to be robbed. A plainclothes officer was going to pick up her bank card, which she had to put under the doormat in front of her apartment. "I'm so ashamed, I completely fell for it," Antonius said on Tuesday. The incident with a loss of around 4000 euros happened months ago, but then there was another so-called shock call.
"That was completely different again. My niece in Vienna is said to have been involved in a car accident in which a child was killed," the actress said. Bail had to be paid to prevent her from being arrested. "I would have been prepared to give 6000 euros", she confessed. However, her brother reacted well and saved her from the scam. "I was so annoyed with myself," emphasized Antonius, who plays Johanna Jansen on "Red Roses". Several media outlets had previously reported on this.
Other celebrities such as the criminologist Christian Pfeiffer from Hanover and the former mayor of Bremen, Henning Scherf, have also been targeted by con artists and have almost gone for it. They went public to warn people.
The police in Lüneburg have been warning people about these criminal calls for weeks. They are currently searching for a so-called runner or collector with a sketch.
The media widely reported about Antonius's subsequent encounter with another scam, where she was falsely informed that her neice was involved in a tragic car accident. She was pressured to pay bail to prevent her niece's arrest, willing to part with 6000 euros.
Such incidents highlight the vulnerability of even prominent figures like Antonius to criminal activities being amplified and sensationalized in the media through television broadcasts.
Source: www.dpa.com
