The police warn against fraudsters who pose as employees of the so-called ‘National Institute for Statistics and Census’. They want to take residents’ fingerprints or view IDs, but don’t do that, officers say.
Reports about the fraudsters have been received from, among others, the municipalities of Tilburg, Oisterwijk and Hilvarenbeek, and from the De Groote Wielen district in Rosmalen.
In De Groote Wielen, the scammers allegedly carry so-called stationery from the Ministry of the Interior, the local police officer reports via social media. The fraudsters ask residents to show their ID and provide a fingerprint for a so-called census.
Don’t fall for it
The Groene Beemden police unit (active in Tilburg, Oisterwijk and Hilvarenbeek) says via Instagram that the scammers there largely work the same way. They try to get into people’s homes and would also like to take photos of IDs.
Don’t fall for this scam, the officers warn. The only official statistics institute in the Netherlands is the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which has been conducting these types of studies exclusively online for years. The advice is to call 112 immediately if the scammers are at your door.