Greek Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis has announced that telephone fraud in Greece will be prosecuted as a felony starting from a single euro under proposed legal changes.
Speaking on a morning broadcast of the ERTnews program Newsroom, Floridis said the government is also creating a specialized department within the Hellenic Police dedicated exclusively to investigating telephone scams and related fraudulent activities.
The penal reform will eliminate the existing financial threshold that previously required financial losses to exceed 120,000 euros before telephone fraud could be charged as a felony offense.
Floridis said telephone scams have evolved into a scourge across Greece, adding that the new strategy was finalized following discussions with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis.
The new police department will utilize all modern electronic means available to the Hellenic Police to identify perpetrators and break up organized crime rings operating behind fraudulent schemes.
Dedicated unit and legal changes
Under the statutory provision prepared by the Ministry of Justice, telephone fraud will trigger felony charges from the very first euro whenever perpetrators use psychological coercion against victims.
Floridis clarified that the stricter framework is not designed exclusively for elderly citizens or vulnerable demographic groups, but will apply to targets of all ages.
He explained that felony charges will apply whenever fraud relies on instilling fear, anxiety, terror, or turmoil in order to persuade a victim to hand over money.
Fraudsters routinely rely on false pretexts to extort money from targets, including fabricated emergencies involving family members, fake unpaid bills, or false claims regarding utility accounts, meters, and administrative services.
The statutory amendment has already been submitted to the Greek Parliament, where it has been incorporated into a broader Ministry of Justice bill concerning the Code of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Floridis said a vote in the parliamentary plenary session is expected around October 15. The tighter penalties will enter into force following approval by lawmakers and official publication in the Government Gazette.
The justice minister stated that combining a specialized police division with tougher penal legislation is expected to deliver serious results in combating telephone crime.
Institutional background and police role
The legal crackdown comes amidst broader efforts by Greek authorities to modernize public safety and strengthen criminal justice responses against organized financial networks.
The Hellenic Police, known locally as EL.AS., operates as the national law enforcement agency of Greece under the authority of the Ministry of Citizen Protection, maintaining responsibility for public security, crime prevention, and specialized investigations nationwide.
ERTnews is the dedicated 24-hour news television network operated by ERT, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, which serves as the public broadcaster of Greece.
The Greek Parliament, located in Athens, is the unicameral national legislature of the Hellenic Republic, while the Government Gazette serves as the official public journal where newly enacted statutes must be published to take legal effect.
Faster trials under judicial map reform
Floridis also outlined recent structural reforms within the Greek judicial system, highlighting major interventions intended to reduce long delays in court proceedings.
A central reform involved the rollout of a revised judicial map, which merged local Peace Courts with Courts of First Instance, effectively abolishing Peace Courts as a separate judicial tier.
Floridis pointed to court operations in Athens as a key example of the reform's impact, noting that courts in the capital handle roughly 60 percent of all financial cases in Greece.
Prior to the structural overhaul, civil lawsuits in Athens routinely experienced delays of approximately four years between the initial filing of a lawsuit and the assignment of a court date.
Under the restructured judicial map, that timeline has been reduced to between seven and eight months, representing a time savings of approximately three and a half years for civil disputes.
Overhaul of Greek inheritance law
In addition to court administration and criminal law updates, Floridis detailed major changes to Greek inheritance law that came into force on September 16.
The minister emphasized that inheritance legislation impacts nearly every family in Greece, pointing out that the previous legal framework had remained in place for approximately eight decades.
Floridis noted that a dedicated drafting committee worked systematically to reform the statutory framework, with the goal of creating modern legislation that enables Greek families to resolve estate and inheritance matters more efficiently.
