Two arrested over app to fake bank transfers for second-hand merchandise

The police arrested two teenagers in Wassenaar suspected of scamming people selling second hand goods on sites like Marktplaats using a fake banking app to fake bank transfers, the police said in a statement on Monday.

The suspects are two boys from Utrecht, age 15 and 18 years.  According to the police, the two posed as buyers for second hand goods offered online. At the door of the seller, they would use a bank app to transfer the money for the item on sale, take the item and leave. But after they left the sellers realized that no money had been transferred and that they had been scammed.

According to the police, the teenagers used a fake app for a well known bank to do this. The police believe that these two teenagers made victims all across the Netherlands. 

The police launched this investigation late last year after receiving reports from different places in the Netherlands from victims that were scammed when selling second hand items. The investigation led them to te Utrecht teens. According to the police, they worked in a "calculating, methodical and shrewd" way.

Investigators searched the homes of the teenagers and found and seized cash, a phone, jewelry, drugs and a knuckle-duster.