Police officers in Central Park have encountered a spate of recent cases in which tourists allegedly filed false police reports about phantom thefts as a basis for fraudulent insurance claims.

Though false reports for insurance purposes have been filed at other times, both within the confines of the Central Park Precinct and elsewhere in the city, a trio of such cases occurred in the park in the first month of this summer, involving tourists from Germany, Australia, and Norway.

In each of the cases, the tourists made claims to police the day they were expecting to leave the United States or the night before the anticipated departure. In two of the cases, the suspects eventually conceded that they made the reports in a ploy to win insurance money, police said.

Police said officers punctured the fabrications during interviews with the alleged victims. One story did not hold up because a complainant’s account of what had happened did not match that of his accomplice. In another case, a story seemed suspect because the alleged robbery occurred in the middle of the park, at a time when that area typically is crowded. No American citizens have been accused of filing false crime reports in the park recently, police said.

Despite the recent flurry of false reports by tourists, the police department said, no such trend is apparent in the city, according to a spokesman for the New York Police Department, Mike Wysokowski.

In the latest incident, a German tourist, Uwe Wilhelm, 40, reported to police last Wednesday that at 9 p.m. someone snatched his $3,000 camera off his shoulder around 62nd Street and West Drive, according to the criminal complaint against Mr. Wilhelm. Upon questioning, the man later said he had actually lost the camera earlier in the day, possibly in the Empire State Building, and he had concocted the false allegation to qualify for money from his insurance company, the court document says.

Police charged him with two counts of falsely reporting an incident. The following day, in a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to a $100 fine, according to the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau.

The press officer at the German Consulate, Werner Schmidt, said of the crime: “If it happens at all, it doesn’t happen too often. Germans who come to New York are usually so well-prepared or intimidated by the city, they don’t dare to do these things.” He said where Germans do get into trouble is when it comes to drinking beer and public urination.

In another case, on June 30 at 5:45 p.m., an Australian, Emma Gibson, 34, told police that a man had stolen her camera in the park on the pathway just below the Sheep Meadow, around 65th Street, according to investigators.

She later conceded she had not been accosted nor was her camera stolen, the district attorney’s office said.

Police charged Gibson with falsely reporting an incident and making a punishable false written statement. The next day, she pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. She is required to pay a $250 fine by the time of her September 2 sentencing date, the district attorney’s office said.

Three days earlier, two men from Norway, Espen Skotterud and Arie Kjaer, reported to police that at 11:05 p.m. they were robbed by a man at knifepoint around 77th Street and East Drive, near the Ramble, the district attorney’s office said. Mr. Kjaer is said to have told police his CD player valued at $725 had been swiped. Mr. Skotterud then said he had purchased a Hitachi camcorder worth $1,450, which had been stolen along with a $310 gold ring and a $230 watch, the district attorney’s office said.

The tourists apparently threw the camcorder in the river, but police said they were able to recover at least some of the property.

The following day, according to the criminal complaint, Mr. Kjaer told police: “The robbery didn’t really happen. Espen Skotterud bought a camcorder and wanted to be reimbursed. We made a false police report and we did it for insurance purposes.” According to Mr. Morgenthau’s office, Mr. Skotterud said he made the report because in the past his luggage had been purloined and his insurance company never reimbursed him for it.

A 2003 survey by the consulting firm Accenture Limited found that about one-fourth of American adults deem it acceptable to defraud insurance companies by inflating the value of insurance claims. The survey also indicated that more than one-tenth of Americans find it acceptable to file an insurance claim for items that were not lost or damaged, or for treatments that were not provided.

A spokeswoman for one large insurer, the Hartford Insurance Company, said she could not recall her company’s having experienced a pattern of false claims based on false police reports. In general, the spokeswoman, Sue Honeyman, said, “We don’t take fraud lightly.” The company has a special investigative unit that addresses fraudulent property claims, and Hartford requires that a claimant file a police report, including case number and police officer’s name and badge number, and obtain a copy of the complaint.

At the travel insurance company Access America, a spokeswoman, Emily Porter, said customers must submit “documentation to prove loss or theft, such as police report or airline baggage-claim form.”

The president of the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, Jonathan Ansell, said he is not surprised by the nature of the crimes reported at Central Park.

“We see that even on claims for U.S. travelers traveling abroad or traveling somewhere and filing a complaint for lost or stolen goods,” Mr. Ansell said. His association is made up of travel agencies that sell insurance to Americans.

“I know this is a global issue,” he said.