Dutch police have arrested 24 people in connection with an investigation into Whatsapp-based confidence tricks in which victims have lost some €75,000 in total.

The group aged between 15 and 40 used the ‘friend in trouble’ fraud system – posing as the friend of someone and contacting them to say they needed cash in an emergency.

The 40 victims, all of whom came from Deventer and its surroundings, were then asked to pay the cash into a bank account either set up specifically for the con or made available to the conmen by a third person.

The sums of money made over by the victims ranged from €500 to €10,000, police said.

The police have set up a special hotline where people can report cases of ‘friend in need’ fraud directly.