in WhatsApp fraud case
The Dutch police have arrested seventeen people in Apeldoorn and the surrounding area who are suspected of making their WhatsApp fraud account available. The group is said to have raised more than 80,000 euros.

According to the police , the suspects are between 16 and 72 years old and have made their bill available to fraudsters who steal money from people on WhatsApp. The fraudsters do this by posing as family members of victims and claiming that they have lost their phone and therefore have an unknown number. The fraudsters often use photos of the people who imitate them, for example, they get them from Facebook.

Fraudsters ask victims to transfer money and send a payment request via WhatsApp. Behind it is the bank account of the money donkeys; people who make their bank account available to criminals. The fraudsters work with such money guilders to stay out of reach themselves. It is not clear to what extent the police track down the fraudsters.

The police say they have received reports of this form of WhatsApp fraud from all over the country, but many reports could be traced back to accounts of people from Apeldoorn and the surrounding area. The police in Apeldoorn then started an investigation in collaboration with the Cybercrime team of the police in the Eastern Netherlands. On December 18, the suspects must answer before the police court.