It has been brought to our attention at the TCA that there are clients of some reputable compensation claims companies being targeted by a new ‘legal’ company, Armando Gareca, in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. The term ‘legal’ is used loosely, as the company does not seem to be very legal at all. It has all of the right logos on its home page of the website; http://armandogarecaabogados.com/home/. Showing they are members of the School of Lawyers in Tenerife, Madrid and the ministry of justice. However, there is doubt over their membership with these professional bodies, as when searching within the registered members of the official School of Lawyers website, nothing appears under this name.
There is also a nice logo half way down the left hand side of the home page stating that they have had 15 years’ web presence, which is quite peculiar considering that the website above was only bought and registered in May this year. Another reason to dig a bit deeper. It is registered to a us address in Burlington, Massachusetts. Also a little odd bearing in mind they are claiming to have offices in Madrid, Tenerife and Argentina. The email address that is registered on the domain is contact@privacyprotect.org. Surely if you were a lawyer’s office, one would think the email address would be more professional.
The above mentioned clients made contact with us, Mr & Mrs X, as they were in the middle of a compensation claim with another company in Tenerife that are on a no win no fee basis. Armando Garcia called them to say that they were making a group lawsuit against their timeshare company and would they like to be considered as one of the group for a small upfront fee. This is a usual ruse for a scam company. They always ask for monies up front. However, once Mr & Mrs X told them that they were already with a company for compensation, and did not have to pay anything up front, the Armando Gareca employee started slating the other company. Saying it was fraudulent, unprofessional and in general trying to scare them into using their pay first win later scheme.
Luckily Mr & Mrs X did not agree to anything and made contact with us instead. We were able to confirm that the company that they were using was reputable, and that Armando Garcia were to be avoided. This is quite a common scam that is being used by pop up law firms in Spain, and not the first one that we have reported on. We would like to warn that it is an ongoing scam, and if you are unsure whether to trust a company or not, contact us on the email or phone below and we will do our best to investigate them for you.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk