Romanian fake police officers scam tourists
Using a story about counterfeit money as a pretext, a group of fake police officers repeatedly manage to check the contents of foreign tourists’ wallets. However, their intentions are far from good: shortly afterwards, all of these tourists discover that part of their money is missing. After an extensive investigation, the police were able to arrest three suspects last week who can be linked to at least five similar cases.
In February, the first tourist reported this scam. At Sloterdijk station in Amsterdam, he was approached by a few men who claimed to be plainclothes police officers. They also identified themselves by showing a badge. Because there was allegedly a lot of counterfeit money in circulation, they said they wanted to check the person’s money. After the unsuspecting tourist cooperated and the fake officers had left, he realised that part of his money was missing.
In the months that followed, the same thing happened to three more people in the Sloterdijk area. Someone in Rotterdam also reported the same type of scam. In all cases, the victims were foreign tourists, suggesting that the scammers were deliberately selecting their targets. The police investigated the various incidents and reviewed, among other things, camera footage. This showed that the same three men were involved in all five cases. The police eventually managed to track them down, and they were arrested on Thursday 18 June. The suspects are aged 35, 39 and 54 and are all from Romania.
Fake police officers
Criminals use all kinds of tricks to scam people, including pretending to be police officers. Fake officers often claim that they are “plainclothes officers” or from the criminal investigation department; do not be misled by this. If you have doubts, police investigators should always show their identification, which includes details such as their name, photo and service number. You can always call 0900-8844 to verify whether you are actually dealing with the police. If you become a victim of a similar scam, always report it to the police.