Million-Mask Fraud Foiled in Coronavirus Variant of Email Scam

(Bloomberg) --

Scammers promising to deliver 10 million face masks to German health authorities have been caught by European police in the latest bid to exploit surging demand for critical medical equipment during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales contractors working for German authorities agreed to pay 1.5 million euros ($1.65 million) to a Dutch supplier for an initial delivery of 1 million masks, Europol, the European police coordination agency, said in a statement Tuesday. When the contractors were told their upfront payment hadn’t been received, they agreed to send a further 880,000-euro payment to ensure the delivery of masks.

Police and prosecutors around Europe are cracking down on the illicit sale of masks as authorities struggle to find sufficient masks from overseas manufacturers. The problem has become more acute as countries such as Singapore make wearing masks outdoors mandatory.

The Dutch supplier in the Europol case was legitimate, but its website had been cloned by the scammers and any evidence of the two payments had vanished, the agency said. Working with Dutch and Irish police and the U.K. bank where the funds had been sent, Europol tracked down the 880,000 euros, including 500,000 euros that had already been sent to the U.K. and was destined for an account in Nigeria.

Two people have been arrested in the case in the Netherlands and the investigation is continuing.

Similar stories are playing out all over Europe as police and prosecutors focus on coronavirus-related scams.

• In the U.K. last week, one man was arrested for stealing masks from an ambulance station to sell online while another was sentenced to three-months in jail for taking them from a hospital.
• In Switzerland, Zurich police last month set up a sting operation to arrest a woman trying to sell masks at a 1,900% markup.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.