At least 136 people lost money after falling for an English language telephone scam last year, in which the fraudsters posed as police officer or justice ministry official reporting a suspicious incident.

Nearly all those who were conned were English speakers, the Fraude Helpdesk organisation confirmed to Dutch News on Thursday. In total, they lost almost €1.2 million, the agency said.

The helpdesk received almost 10,000 reports about the scam, in which people first listened to an English tape recording and were then put through to a live call.

‘On the recording you hear, for example, that someone has rented a car in your name in which drugs were found. Then they ask for your bank details,’ agency director Marloes Kolthof told NOS.

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In total, the number of reports about online and telephone scams made to the Fraud Helpdesk organisation reached some 500,000 last year, with telephone cons up 18%. The agency put the total amount lost to fraudsters at €43 million in 2022.