fraud

Tickets for the Champions League semi final match between Ajax and Tottenham Hotspur in Amsterdam next week have already sold out. Desperate fans are searching online trading sites for a way to still see the match, where tickets are being offered at sky-high prices. Beware of scammers, the Dutch police warn.

Fraudulent bitcoin investment advertisements using fake quotes from Dutch celebrities are becoming an increasingly prevalent problem in the Netherlands, the Fraud Help Desk told broadcaster NOS. People who fall for these scams are promised large profits on their "investment", but never see a cent.

The police took down 10 fake online stores which were made to look like English versions of real Dutch stores on Tuesday. Two suspects, a 40-year-old man from Leeuwarden and a 21-year-old man from Groningen, were arrested.

These English-language sites looked like the websites of real Dutch stores, with web addresses that were very similar to those of recognized stores with a Chamber of Commerce registration. Visitors bought products like milk powder, energy drinks, shampoo, deodorant and alcohol. After payment, the products were never delivered.

The Spanish police rescued an elderly Dutch woman and German man from what the police describe as a "horror nursing home" near the city of Cadiz. The two elderly people were locked up with at least five other foreign seniors in the nursing home, where they were drugged, abused and given food exclusively through tube feeding, while they could eat normally, NOS reports.

Six people were arrested on suspicion of defrauding the elderly. According to the Spanish police, they stole over 1.8 million euros from their victims.

A 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of scamming multiple women throughout the Netherlands. According to the police, the man pretended to be 'the ideal marriage candidate' and then stole tens of thousands of euros from the women. The Amsterdam police are looking for more women who may have fallen victim to the Gelderland man's scheme, NU.nl reports.

Dutch consumers' association Consumentenbond took down over 2,700 fake online stores by getting in touch with their hosting providers late last year. This brings the total of fake online stores shut down to over 4,500 in 2018, the organization announced, RTL Nieuws reports.

The association calls the fake online stores a plague for Dutch consumers. Consumentenbond tracked them down through, among other things, language errors, strange web addresses and tips from observant users.

Six poultry farmers were sentenced to prison and community service for committing fraud with their poultry rights. They kept more poultry and produced more manure than they had permits for. They must also pay the illegal profits they made back to the State, totaling in an amount of 860 thousand euros, NOS reports.

According to the judge, the farmers all violated the Fertilizers Act, which is intended to reduce the surplus manure and livestock containment in order to protect the environment. By doing so they created unfair competition. 

Multiple businesses in the hospitality industry in Amsterdam's city center were closed and fined thousands of euros for committing labor market fraud, the the Social Affairs and Employment Inspectorate and the municipality of Amsterdam announced, the Telegraaf reports.

According to the Inspectorate, the businesses forged payslips, employed foreigners without a work permit, messed with working hours, and underpaid their workers, among other things. These practices did not stop despite warnings. 

Former European Parliamentarian Paul van Buitenen is filing a complaint against TNO accusing the research institute of committing fraud during the investigation into the catastrophic fireworks explosion in Enschede in 2000, investigative journalism platform Follow the Money reported on Monday. This prompted SE Fireworks director Rudi Bakker to file a review request in an ultimate attempt to force the judiciary to re-do the entire investigation, RTV Oost reports.

The approach to unemployment benefit fraud by migrant workers does not have the "necessary urgency", Minister Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs wrote in a letter to the Tweede Kamer following reports by Nieuwsuur about large-scale fraud committed by labor migrants from Poland. 

The re-exams of seven pupils of the Rijswijks Lyceum were declared invalid because their teachers gave them the opportunity to improve their answers after the re-exams were written. The four teachers will be dismissed and a declaration will be filed against them, the board of the Rijswijk school, Stichting VO Haaglanden, announced, RTL Nieuws reports.