Reporting fraud and deception
Are you an entrepreneur and a victim of fraud or deception? Report it to the police or to a special hotline. Read where to report fraud.
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What is fraud?
Fraud is a collective term for different types of deception. Tax fraud, internet fraud, or company fraud. Company fraud means a fraudster tries to scam your company for their own benefit. They do so by pretending to be someone else, or by presenting things in a false manner.
There are different types of fraud:
In acquistion fraud, a fraudster pretends to be an advertising agency and sell you a fake advertisement. Sometimes this happens by sending fake invoices.
Extortion (in Dutch) means someone demands money from you under the threat of, for example, violence or of making incriminating or damaging information public.
Tax fraud (in Dutch): someone conceals income or profits from their business. Or evades tax.
Boiler room fraud (in Dutch) is when criminials try to get you to invest money, promising high returns that never materialise. After the first investment, the criminal will keep pushing you to invest more.
Criminals pretend to be the CEO of a company on the phone or in an email in CEO fraud (in Dutch). They will order the person they target to quickly transfer a sum of money.
A company buys (a lot of) products from you, but you never get paid. The company suddenly does not exist anymore. This is called bankruptcy fraud.
Identity fraud means someone uses your personal details for ordering products online, for example. Fraudsters often use phishing to get your personal details. If someone illegally acts on behalf of your business it is called business identity theft.
You buy a product, but you never receive it. Or you supply a product, but are never paid. This is called internet fraud or internet deception (in Dutch).
Use the police tool Check de (ver)koper (check the buyer/seller, in Dutch) to find out if someone has had a negative experience with a seller or buyer before.
Cyber criminals use phishing to steal personal details or passwords. Different techniques are in use. For example, pretending to be someone else by sending fake emails and text messages (smishing).
Your telephone service is transferred to another provider to another without your knowledge or consent. This is called slamming (in Dutch) or phone service hijacking. The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM, in Dutch) can tell you what to do in case of slamming.
Spoofing means someone adopts a false identity. Spoofing comes in different varieties. Website spoofing, for example: criminals build a fake bank website.
Advance fee fraud: in return for an advance payment, you are promised a high compensation, for example part of the profit, but you never receive it.
Hotlines for fraud and deception
Always report fraud and deception to the police. In some situations, you can also report fraud and deception to one of these hotlines:
- Internet Scams (Dutch Police, in Dutch)
- Report financial and tax fraud (Tax Administration, in Dutch)
- Report VAT fraud (Tax Administration)
- Fraudulent Employment Agencies Reporting Centre (Netherlands Labour Authority)
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Questions relating to this article?
Please contact the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO