English translation of: https://www.nu.nl/tech/6142211/politie-houdt-verdachten-aan-die-nepadvertenties-plaatsten-voor-huurwoningen.html
“Authorities in Romania have arrested two Romanian suspects who were involved in large-scale online fraud in the Dutch online housing market for years, the European justice service Eurojust writes. The suspects placed fake advertisements for rental apartments and had hundreds of victims transfer one or two months’ rent.
The fraud case has been running since 2015. Victims were approached via messaging services and convinced to transfer rent in advance without having seen the apartments.
By communicating via messaging services, the suspects remained anonymous for a long time. Then, the money was transferred to bank accounts in different countries to launder the amounts. As a result, the scammers got their hands on at least 700,000 euros by defrauding people; a Eurojust spokesperson told NU.nl when asked.
Eurojust worked with Dutch and Romanian authorities on the investigation that led to the arrest of the two suspects. As a result, the Dutch authorities have issued European Arrest Warrants to prosecute them in the Netherlands.
Two houses were also searched. Phones, computers and a “large sum of money” were seized. Details about this are not known.”
