National Threat Assessment 2008. Organised Crime - Politie

encourages fraud. The long-term effects are unclear. A comparable development
in the UK led to a substantial increase in the use of this fraud construction,
especially the VAT carousel.
3.2.7 Conclusion
The public purse method can be used for various types of fraud. As a result of
its flexibility, it is difficult to fight this construction. This is also due to the large
number of opportunities to commit fraud. The differences in taxes levied in the
countries of the EU explain the use of this fraud construction to a significant
degree. The loss of income of the main victim – the state – totals tens, and
probably even hundreds, of millions of euros per year. The damage to bona fide
companies can result in liquidations. The indirect damage cannot be measured
in euros, but it is also considerable; the intertwining of criminal and legal
activities plays an especially important role. Together with the expectation that
this fraud construction will be used to an increasing degree, the above reasons
make this construction a threat to Dutch society for the next four years.
3.3 Fata Morgana: advance fee fraud and
investment fraud 41
3.3.1 Introduction and scope
Two fraud constructions are described in this report. One of them is discussed
in this section, namely fraud where a suggested possibility of earning a lot of
money quickly is misused. The construction used by the fraudsters in these cases
is always the same: the Fata Morgana. This name was chosen as this
construction always involves the suggestion of a dream scenario – earning a lot
of money in a short period of time – which comes apart at the very moment
when the victim believes that he has almost achieved his goal. In the meantime
the swindlers disappear ‘into thin air’ and it is no longer possible to contact
them. Advance fee fraud and investment fraud are examples of Fata Morgana
scenarios. Both are types of parasitic fraud: fraud from which only the fraudster
benefits and everybody else loses.
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This section is based on a report prepared for NTA 2008: Dienst IPOL, 2008. De Staatruif en
de Fata Morgana. Verslag van een onderzoek naar fraudeconstructies voor het Nationaal
dreigingsbeeld 2008. Korps landelijke politiediensten (Netherlands Police Agency), Dienst IPOL,
Zoetermeer. The authors of this report are P. Minnebo, S. Mesu, F. Nieuwenhuis and D. van
Nobelen.
chapter 3 – Fraud and money laundering
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