Two Swedish tourists first felt sympathy when approached by a robbed fellow Swede in a Manila hotel last week.
But after handing out some funds they became suspicious and called Sweden’s embassy to check up the man.
The penniless robber victim turned out to be the notorious 39-year Swedish fraudster who has performed a different scam for several years on gullible tourists in Manila’s shopping malls and better hotels.
Filipino police was requested to finally do their part of the job and a trap was set up with the tourists as bait and the 39-year old arrested.
He will be transferred to Sweden as soon as possible.
Swedish authorities has less than twenty confirmed cases where the man did fool tourists to pay out substantial sums after claiming a relative of theirs was in hospital or another grave situation which called for immediate funds to Manila.
The real number of cases may be much higher.
Then he always claimed to be employed by the Swedish embassy or a reputed tour operator.
After he was exposed in Swedish media last year and officially wanted by Swedish police he changed modus operandi and targets.
Just a few weeks before his arrest he tried the ‘relative in grave situation trick’ on an American traveler, without success.
