The arrival of spring beckons millions of tourists to New York City, and many are set on visiting the Statue of Liberty. For years, visitors have been greeted in Lower Manhattan by vendors selling boat tickets to the landmark — at least that’s the pitch.

On Wednesday, the police arrested more than a dozen ticket sellers in what officials said was a crackdown on vendors who prey on tourists by offering fake tickets to the Statue of Liberty. The vendors, some on parole for serious crimes, told tourists they were getting tickets to boats that stopped at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, though the tickets were actually for ferries that circled New York Harbor without stopping, the police said.

John J. Miller, deputy police commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, said 21 vendors were facing charges of fraudulent accosting after an investigation of ticket-selling practices in and near Battery Park, where ferries to the landmarks depart. Fourteen of the suspects were in police custody, he said.

“What we found in the undercover portion of this,” Commissioner Miller said, “was that these aggressive ticket sellers preyed largely on people that they identified as tourists, particularly foreign tourists, by promising them that the tickets to the Statue of Liberty boat were all sold out, but that if they bought these tickets, it would take them to Liberty Island and they would have to charge a little extra and so on.”