Woman arrested for money laundering in online shopping scam

A 33-year-old woman was arrested last week on suspicion of money laundering in a Marktplaats scam. The Rotterdam police believe the woman let fraudsters use her bank account for their scam, which involved selling non existent text books to students via online shopping platform Marktplaats, AD reports.

This investigation has been running since 2015, when a total of 108 victims reported being scammed. They bought text books on Marktplaats, paid the money but never received the books. The total amount of damages was over 4 thousand euros.

The police investigation into the woman's bank account showed another 185 suspicious transactions, totaling over 6 thousand euros. But no victims came forward for these transactions.

The woman's bank account was frozen. She told the police that she lent her account to third parties to use. She is therefore facing money laundering charges, instead of fraud charges.

The detectives questioned the woman and released her from custody. She can await her eventual trial in freedom.