© picture alliance / Anadolu | Dursun Aydemir
The incident dates back to late December 2021. A few days after losing her bank card, Belgian Princess Claire received a text message saying that her card was blocked and that she needed to click on a link. When she did, she fell into the hands of scammers.
The scammers in question withdrew 17,000 euros from the princely couple's account: not only from the princess' personal account, but also from her household account and the account in which her husband, Prince Laurent, receives his endowment.
Police investigations led the trail of the fraudulent text message to a woman from Antwerp whose identity card had previously been stolen. A cell phone number had been accessed with that identity card. However, the woman pleaded not guilty.
After further investigation of bank and computer data, five suspects could be arrested.
The case went to trial this week, Belgian media reported. Because some defendants did not show up for their trial at the Leuven court, the judge postponed the case to the end of September. The defendants risk imprisonment from 1 year to 18 months.
Picture: © picture alliance / Anadolu | Dursun Aydemir