Belgian police tracking the crooks who would be king

King Philippe of Belgium (left) and Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa walk prior to an audience at the Royal Palace in Brussels, on January 23. Photo / Benoit Doppagne, Belga, AFP

A band of crooks have been passing themselves off as Belgian royalty over the past year to get money out of foreign dignitaries and business leaders, Belgian investigators said today.

The gang has used emails, phone calls, and fake videos generated by artificial intelligence to set their traps, federal prosecutors said.

The as-yet unidentified gang has been operating since early 2025, using phone calls and the WhatsApp messaging to pass themselves off as King Philippe or key members of his staff in their attempts to talk people out of their money.

They choose their targets based on their possible links to the royal family, said prosecutors.

“Fortunately, most victims quickly caught on to the deception,” said the prosecutors office in a statement.

In one case, however, the gang did manage to get a person to transfer a sum of money, they added.

As well as foreigners and business leaders, the gang also tried their luck with Belgian families close to the country’s royals.

Then in a fresh wave of activity this month, they sent out invitations to Belgian business executives for a video interview, trying to pass themselves off as the king.

“The images in this video interview were probably generated by artificial intelligence,” said prosecutors.

Some executives were honoured with invitations to entirely fictitious gala dinners, with requests to pay sponsorship fees for the non-existent event.

Federal prosecutors said they were investigating the attempted frauds with the help of specialist teams in the federal police.

-Agence France-Presse