Belgian radio presenter is suspect in hotel scam

A Belgian radio presenter is suspected of scamming more than 1,000 European hotels for a total of more than €400,000, report the Sudpresse newspapers.

Rainer K. of Eupen, Liège province, phoned or emailed hotels with an interesting proposal: The hotels could advertise for free on his radio station in exchange for gift vouchers "to raffle off among the listeners."

RTR Kulturradio Europa, however, is a one-man project with only a handful of listeners. Thousands of hotel owners in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy nonetheless fell for the scam. The vouchers were then sold on eBay.

Over a period of 10 years, the man is suspected to have earned more than €400,000 with the sale of some 6,000 hotel vouchers. But a Swiss hotel manager discovered the fraud this week and alerted the Belgian hotel federation, which filed a complaint with the police.