tHIS IS JUST SO YOU KNOW WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR IN CONS AND SCAMS IN SPAIN
James Bryce looks at the huge proliferation of cons and scams at work on the Costa del Sol this summer
TO paraphrase Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy, ?if it looks like a scam, and sounds like a scam, it probably is a scam. But despite this, thousands of consumers in southern Spain continue to be duped into parting with their hard-earned cash by devious fraudsters using increasingly elaborate schemes to do it. It comes as no surprise that one such international ?lottery scam? ? indeed the biggest of its kind ever to be busted ? was based in Malaga.
Linked to the Nigerian mafia, the group of 53 fraudsters, is accused of sending millions of spam emails ? and official letters ? to random accounts around the world, claiming the recipients had won the Spanish lottery. Victims, who numbered thousands around the world, each paid an administrative fee in order to claim their ?winnings. In total it is estimated the conmen sent up to 25,000 emails and letters a day and approximately one in 500 people acted on them. In total they are estimated to have made up to 250million euros. Unsurprisingly this method of making money has proliferated greatly over the last few years. The so-called mass marketing scams typically begin with the sending of emails, texts and letters in a bid to entice their victims into handing over bank details and other personal data. And judging by the figures, it seems to be an effective ruse. Authorities estimate that around 40,000 fraudulent letters leave Spain each day en route to victims around the world. This is despite Spanish police arresting more than 400 people and identifying more than 400 bank accounts used in fraudulent lottery schemes over recent years.
The UK?s National Fraud Authority recently reported that British consumers lost an eye-watering 3.9 billion euros last year to mass marketing scams.
Citizens Advice ? a charity set up to offer guidance to those with legal and financial problems ? estimates a massive 840 million unsolicited phone calls were made in 2009 by firms offering to manage debt.
The equivalent of 38 for every UK home. Meanwhile, an estimated 111 million unwanted emails and text messages are sent every day, according to comparison website uSwitch. It is exactly the same in Spain. Indeed, a straw poll conducted in the Olive Press office to find out how many junk emails are received each week revealed a figure in the hundreds. Phishing Many of these emails are aimed at stealing your personal and financial information, a scam commonly known as ?phishing?. Cyber fraudsters are increasingly looking to exploit the economic downturn by offering anything from flats to festival tickets online in exchange for upfront fees.
Boiler room share scams
Another tried-and-tested scam that is particularly popular with Spanish-based fraudsters targeting British customers are the so-called ?boiler room scams?. In total, hundreds of thousands of euros are being syphoned off from clients each month and put into a variety of nefarious schemes. The profits and kickbacks to the conmen are large and it is unsurprising that, when approached, they don?t normally like to talk. ?I was amazed at how much money was passing through during my time with the deck in Alhaurin,? explained one source who worked with Wright for a number of months. ?In the end I felt my moral conscience could no longer work knowing that people ? many of them pensioners ? were losing their nest eggs to sleaze.? Carbon Credit schemes
One of the latest scams involves schemes to buy so-called carbon credits.
These essentially use the same tactics as boiler room scams, but selling a different product.In one case, an elderly woman agreed to purchase 4,000 euros worth of carbon credits after being contacted by a firm called CarbonTrace Solutions.After attempting to back out of the deal, the woman was threatened with litigation by the company.The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has had some recent success in tackling the problem. Last month the organisation secured its first criminal conviction for boiler room fraud when David Mason was jailed for two years for a bogus share scheme. But as potential victims become increasingly wary of the risks posed by boiler rooms ? much in part due to the publicity they receive in the media ? so the fraudsters are changing their tactics. New techniques being used by boiler rooms include cloning details from the FSA register in a bid to appear legitimate. In several cases, existing reference number?s of legitimate firms listed on the register have been used as well as the actual name?s of legitimate companies.
Recovery schemes
Other boiler room scams becoming increasingly popular include ?recovery schemes? in which the fraudsters target those who have already fallen victim to boiler rooms, claiming they can recover their money. Insisting they pay a small upfront fee of between 250 and 600 euros they will then go about getting their money back Of course it never happens.
