A new type of European scam against Europeans.....

That's really dreadful. It's so tough to make a living in the restaurant business, even if your customers don't stiff you.

It's organized crime whether the patrons saw themselves that way or not.

I thought you were posting about a scam perpetrated against tourists?
This just does not only happen in Europe. I live in college town and the kids try to run tabs and skip out.

Your title is a little misleading, since this is not a scam against tourists. It is unfortunate for the restaurant owner, and should not have happened, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators. It's also unlikely to have been committed by tourists, but rather by an organized group. But as an earlier poster noted, this happens all the time (though maybe not to as large an extent) in university towns here in the US, too.

I've amended my title. Does that cover it?

Regarding the comments about the group involved, I specifically avoided making any reference to the nationality of the "suspects" (although that was mentioned by some of the news reports).

According to a story on NPR this morning, the parties formed a conga line, and danced out---and vanished.

This article made me laugh obviously I feel for the owners and staff but the sheer cheek of the perps is unbelievable