It may sound apochryphal, but stories like these were commonn in the seventies and early eighties. A whole lot of scams were operated by Dutch agents, for various building workers and other skilled labour. The trick was to send hapless Brits and Irish guys to work on the sites in Germany. The contractors would disappear into thin air after the work was done. When the workers tried to cross over the border into Holland, the border patrols were tipped off that "undesirables" were trying to get in. They were inevitably arrested and made to take the long way home. I met several victims of these scams. Eventually, the agents were busted and that particular scam ended. Nowadays, the victims tend to come from East Europe. Open borders and increased authority for European law helped to end that one.
I am sad to note that. The predators have simply found new sources of poor people to exploit.