Italian police said Friday that a man known through Europe as the "fraud king" had been arrested in France for swindling as much as euro500,000 ($718,000) out of tourists and other unsuspecting people through Internet scams.
Carlo Rao, 31, conned people out of their money by getting them to wire him down payments for phony tourist apartments, vacations and other goods that he never provided, said Diego Acqui, who headed the investigation for Rome police.
Rao was arrested by French police in the southern city of Toulon on Thursday after he was traced to a Western Union office where he had gone to pick up his latest wire transfer, Acqui said. While the name on the transfer form was fake, the address was correct and police picked him up at his home.
Acqui said Rao had been conducting the scam for five to six years, starting out by offering nonexistent items like cell phones and jewels on eBay and collecting money that unsuspecting buyers would wire him in advance.
He was arrested on a European arrest warrant and is expected to be transferred to Italy shortly, he said. Rao faces charges of fraud, operating under a false name and kidnapping — a charge stemming from an alleged incident in which he held an ex-girlfriend in his home against her will, he said.