When you’re a tourist in a foreign country, you tend to cooperate unquestionably with the local police forces; no matter what language they’re speaking – however, you can come unstuck this way.

The police in Catalunya (Catalonia) are warning about the reappearance of a gang of Romanians posing as police officers with the intent of ripping off foreign tourists.

Now, if you don’t speak the lingo, you couldn’t be expected to distinguish between a Romanian and a Spaniard when they address you, which is why they only targeted Asians and North European tourists rather than Spaniards or South Americans.

The gang operates in groups of three, with two acting as policemen (with bogus shields/ID), whilst the third pretends to be just another tourist. This third man attaches himself to a group of Japanese tourists, for example, and then is the first to cooperate when his colleagues approach; thus giving credence to their police credentials.

Furthermore, the bogus policemen dress in blue jackets, caps and use walkie-talkies, pretending to speak a police control centre.

The press release doesn’t actually say what they do to rip off tourists, unfortunately, but it probably has something to do with stealing passports and other ID when it is handed over to them.

However, this article from a few years back both demonstrates that it is not a new scam, but reading responses to the article you can see instances of people explaining how they have personally been done over in this fashion

(News: Barcelona, Cataluna)