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Fake Beer Coupon Scandal Rocks Oktoberfest

September 23, 2004
https://p.dw.com/p/5bug

In the biggest ever scam to hit Munich's Oktoberfest beer festival, police in Bavaria on Thursday confiscated around 30,000 fake beer coupons. A 33-year-old man from the former Yugoslavia, suspected to be the mastermind, has been arrested. Waiters in two tents where the forged coupons were circulating, recognized the forgery, and alerted the police. According to police sources, two visitors to the festival bought the beer coupons from the suspected criminals "in good faith" and wanted to pay for their lager with it. The two are now considered witnesses in the case. Police reckon that damages to the Oktoberfest organizers would have amounted to €400,000 ($491,000) if all the forged coupons had been sold.