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 flats by inventing a bedbug crisis. A ministry statement says the posters in the city center, festooned with fake ministry and Athens municipality logos, are “absolutely false.” The posters, addressed to “dear visitors,” claim health authorities ordered local “private guesthouses” evacuated “to protect the public health of permanent Greek tenants” amid a supposed bedbug infestation. In addition to a cost-of-living crisis, Athens and other parts of Greece face housing problems linked to the proliferation of short-term rental flats, mainly for tourists.