A bedbug hoax is targeting foreign visitors in Athens. Now the Greek police have been called in

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s health ministry is seeking police help against hoaxers who tried to scare foreign tourists out of several Athens short-term rental apartments by inventing a bedbug crisis. A ministry statement on Tuesday said that the posters in the city center were festooned with fake ministry and Athens municipality logos. The ministry said that they are “absolutely false.” The posters were addressed to “dear visitors” and claimed that health authorities ordered local “private guesthouses” evacuated “to protect the public health of permanent Greek tenants” amid a supposed bedbug infestation. Athens and other parts of Greece face a cost-of-living crisis and housing problems linked to the proliferation of short-term rental apartments that are mainly for tourists.