It’s strangely quiet in the office this morning as survivors of Queen’s Day struggle in after a three-day party weekend. For the uninitiated, 30 April or on 29 April if the 30th is a Sunday is Queen’s Day which celebrates the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands and is supposed to be a day of national unity and “togetherness”.
Well, that sounds nice. But it’s also a weekend of opportunity – for the scammers, that is. More on the scam in a moment.
Back to Queen’s Day. Here’s some more stuff paraphrased from Wikipedia: a tradition started on 31 August 1885, on the birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, later Queen Wilhelmina. Queen’s Day is known for its “freemarket” (Dutch: vrijmarkt) all over the country, where everybody is allowed to sell things in the streets. Other activities during Queen’s Day are children’s games, individual musical performances, and music concerts.
Yet another activity is the scam. This is what we experienced in our serviced apartments business in Amsterdam. It worked like this:
- A scamming site was set up: http://www.thepalacereservation.com
- Several of our serviced apartments were illegally listed for insanely low prices +/- Euro 40 per night instead of Euro 160 per night
- Incredibly – during the busiest weekend of the year – there was not only availability but for give-away prices
- No, no, no – no phone contact possible. Just transfer your money to a Western Union account number
It’s harsh to claim that those following this instruction got what they deserved but it once again emphasises online caution. On the big day itself , we received three parties – two Spanish and one German group – looking to check-in to apartments booked by others month’s ago. All we could do was point out several budget hotels outside the A10 (the highway circling Amsterdam).
On checking this morning, it appears that http://www.thepalacereservation.com is still up and running despite us informing relevant ISPs and the local police. Although, there is an entirely new look and feel – someone has been busy over the weekend.
