In Monaco, a group of trick scammers has excelled in recent weeks by special creativity. As allegedly distressed Prince Albert, they approach the high society.

In the Principality of Monaco, con artists have spent weeks as prominent personalities to take their unsuspecting victims money. As the newspaper "Monaco-Matin" reported, the perpetrators also resorted to a doppelganger of Prince Albert II. This made video contact with members of the Riviera elite and let them believe that they were dealing with the real prince in his office in the palace.

The Monegasque government confirmed in a statement that there had been attempts to contact via SMS, videoconferencing and messaging services. There were also documents with the official letterhead of the Principality and forged signatures been used. Calls were manipulated so that the numbers matched those of the real institutions.

The effort was made with the aim of obtaining money transfers to foreign bank accounts under the pretext of an urgent financial problem. The investigators could not grasp the fraudsters so far. The police called for special caution in suspicious contacts.