The arrested suspects, two 25-year-old men from Hengelo, reported to the police station in Venlo at the request of the investigative authorities. One suspect was released after questioning, but he is still a suspect in this case. The other man was presented to the Examining Magistrate on Thursday, August 21, who placed him in custody for fourteen days.

Earlier this year, their homes were searched, and on that same day, a 33-year-old suspect was arrested in Spain. On August 19, the first pro forma hearing for this suspect took place, where the court decided to extend his pre-trial detention. More arrests in this investigation are not ruled out.

Public Private Cooperation
The National Postcode Lottery has filed a report of fraud due to the misuse of their name. “It is primarily important to know that our winners always receive their prize money directly into their account. This is the same account number they used to pay for their ticket,” said a spokesperson for the National Postcode Lottery. “They do not have to do anything for this. Our participants are the foundation of our lottery. Their safety is very important to us. It is unacceptable that fraudsters misuse our name. We see it as our responsibility to take action against this and cooperate in stopping these fraudsters.”

The ASN Bank also filed a report. Through the Electronic Crimes Taskforce (ECTF), they reported fraud involving customers of this bank. The ECTF is a collaboration of banks, the Public Prosecution Service, and the police to combat online crime targeting the financial sector and its customers.

Both organizations worked together with Team Cybercrime Limburg during the process to prevent new victims. For some time now, there have been no new reports regarding the relevant method.

Method of Fraud
During the investigation, it became clear that the suspects also used an online call center application. With this, thousands of Dutch people were approached via an automatically spoken message in which someone posed as an employee of the National Postcode Lottery. They were told they had won a prize, and to be connected, they had to press “1.” After this, they got the fraudster live on the line.  

The victim was again told that they had won a prize. They then received a message that too much money had been paid or that taxes still needed to be paid. They were asked to click on a link, which then did not work. The fraudster offered help and seduced the victim to install AnyDesk or a similar program. This gave the fraudster access to the victims computer and thus also to her account. The fraudster changed the name of the savings account to that of the lottery. Then, part of this money had to be refunded as overpaid or as tax. This amount was then transferred to a third account.

Prevention Message Against Telephone Fraud

• Trust your gut feeling
  • Do not be pressured and do not be misled by a created sense of urgency
  • If in doubt, hang up
  • If you do not trust it and cannot figure it out? Then call the respective lottery yourself
• Never install programs, such as AnyDesk, at the request of a caller

Filing a Report
If you have become a victim of cybercrime, contact the police and file a report or a notification. This can be done via 0900-8844 or online via this link.