Greek police crack lottery scam targeting Germans
Greek police said Wednesday they are on the trail of two men accused of running a massive lottery scam that tricked some 360,00 people, mostly Germans, into paying around 36 million euros into phony draws over the course of four years.
The two suspects, whose names have not been released, are German citizens of Greek descent and are known to be in Athens, Kathimerini understands.
They own two businesses in the upscale Kolonaki district in the city center, which are believed to have been used to launder their ill-gotten gains.
The way they allegedly worked was to call clients registered with other betting companies after illegally obtaining their details. They would ask for a subscription fee of around 30 euros to ostensibly enter the client into a lottery for a cash prize or a free holiday.
German authorities are expected to issue European warrants for their arrest so they can stand trial in that country.
