An old scam doing the rounds again

It would appear that an old scam has resurected itself. First discovered in 2018 and now doing the rounds again. Quite a simple one to spot as it is full of errors which we will point out later. Firstly let’s look at how it pans out. It is obvious that these scammers have illegally obtained a list of individuals who may or may not have paid money to other scam companies. The list of possible companies numbers around 20. We guess the scammers logic is that their potential victim must have dealt with at least one of them, so they work on the basis that if you throw enough mud at the wall some of it will stick. 

An unsolicited email is received purporting to come from the Banco de España, which of course it doesn’t. It contains the usual old story that the courts in Málaga have requested monies from failed scam companies and the Banco de España is charged with the responsibility of distributing the funds, providing of course you pay a sum upfront to cover tax.

Let’s take a look at the email:

From: Banco de España BDE <bdebancodeespanareclamos@gmail.com> 
To:  
Date: 08 September 2020 at 12:19 
Subject: . BDP4045. BANCO DE ESPAÑA 

Dear Mr & Mrs X, 

We wish to inform you that we have tried contacting you via telephone call as we have received a notification from the court in Malaga, Juzgados de Malaga, Calle Fiscal Luis Portero García, 0, 29010 Malaga, Spain. 

Translation of notification: 

‘The bank of Spain wish to inform you that we have received a document from the court of Malaga, Juzgados de Malaga, Calle Fiscal Luis Portero García, 0, 29010 Málaga, Spain, regarding a compensation claim from the director of the company “European Finance Solutions, EFS, Excalibur, Level 9 Resolutions SL, Sun Travel International, Half Moon Holdings, Principle Travel, Simple Timeshare Sales, Freewall Solutions, End Vacation, Iberian Dream Homes, Holiday Rentals Direct, Breakaway Vacation, CMC Accounts, Selling Time, Timeshare Resale, Emerald Rock Holdings, Blue Chip, Blue Diamond, Fast Line, etc”. 

In your case it showed that you had paid money in to account/s of the company/s in mention. May we inform you that your information was found among their bank statements as having paid them money. This may have been done by credit card, debit card, Western Union, money gram, bankers draft, Ukash vouchers, etc. 

May we also remind you that they traded under many different company names, if you have paid any other company it is most then likely linked to these companies as they changed company name frequently. 

These companies claimed to be investment companies, mediation companies, litigation companies, resale companies, share holding companies, lawyers, etc. 

The document states that the director of aforementioned company has been found guilty of fraud and money laundering in Europe. 

The Judge at the court hearing ruled that all remaining funds in accounts linked to the aforementioned company is to be divided equally amongst claimants, as there was insufficient evidence of how much each client of theirs had paid, as they traded under many different company names, they used many different payment methods and many different bank accounts. 

May we inform you that we have heard from other victims of fraud that they have been contacted by third parties in other countries, claiming to be courts, or companies that can claim money back, this information is incorrect, please may we advise that you be very careful with whom you deal with and if any company or any third party asks for your credit or debit card details, DO NOT GIVE THAT INFORMATION TO THEM. Since 2011 it has been illegal for anyone to request that information and take payment when the matter has anything to do with timeshare. 

Please note that there is a post on mindtimeshare stating this information is false, may we inform you that mindtimeshare is owned by a man called Alberto Garcia, this person was one of the prosecuted directors, owning many fraudulent companies, and for years writing online about other fraudulent and legal companies but not making people aware of the companies owned by him. He owned many of the fraudulent companies in Spain claiming to be notaries and Lawyers, defrauding people out of thousands of pounds. Now there is a woman writing on his behalf as Alberto Garcia has been prosecuted. May we inform you that if you are not to claim the money owed to you, the company that took the money from you has a right to claim back the money themselves, as if it is not claimed, in the eyes of the law you have not been defrauded, this may be another reason why this has been written online. May we inform you that we are starting by taking legal action against them for false accusations against the Banco de España.      

In the case of MR & MRS X contact number XXXX total of £27,391 is due to be remitted as there is sufficient evidence that the named victim mentioned above was found victim to fraud. 

Issues surrounding money laundering problems in Spain mean that amounts over €10,000 are to be revised for money laundering and fraud purposes. 

Having run all checks against your payment it has been approved as it has been classed as a ‘compensation claim’ and will be sent directly to you from the courts. 

Spanish tax laws dictate that amounts greater than €10.000 relating to compensation payments are subject to tax payment which must be paid in advance of authorisation being granted to release your funds. 

The tax is refundable if you are not a resident of Spain. 

If you are a resident of Spain, the tax is not refundable. 

The tax payment is 4%. 

If you are a pensioner or over the age of 65 the tax is lowered to 2%. 

If you are a British resident you are not liable for Spanish tax and therefore this is classed as a temporary payment which will be refunded to you within 14 working days of receipt. 

The amount payable is £1,095.64. 

The amount payable if you are a pensioner is of £547.82. 

Upon receipt of funds we will apply for the necessary authorisation on your behalf, this is a formality after-which you have two options to receive your payment, either bank transfer, this takes 24/48 hours to clear in your account or you may be paid via cheque, we do ask for you to allow for a week for the cheque to arrive as it will be sent from Spain. 

Please note that should you decide to proceed and claim your compensation you will no longer be able to take any further legal action against the aforementioned director of the aforementioned companies. 

Should you require any further clarification you may reply to this email with any questions you have, if proceeding you will need to inform us in advance which method of payment you prefer. 

You may contact your case handler on the following number 0034 602 576 406 please ask to speak to the English department. 

If you wish to receive via e-mail information on how to protect yourself against fraud please notify us. 

Please find the website of the bank of Spain below, you may also find this by typing Banco de España or Bank of Spain in google. 

Banco de España  

So what’s wrong? The easy answer is everything! For starters there is no court case or money to be paid in relation to the companies mentioned and there never will be. Even if there was a court case, the court would distribute the funds, not the Banco de España. Can you imagine the Bank of England getting involved in such a case? We thought not!

It is also rather perplexing as to why the national bank of Spain would send emails from a Google Mail account, when their domain name should be @Bde.es. 

Also, another point that is not so readily identifiable to people who may not be familiar with the Spanish telephone network, is that mobile phone numbers in Spain either begin with a 6 or 7. So the contact number quoted; (0034) 602 576 406, is actually a mobile! Do you honestly believe that the national bank of Spain would use mobiles phones when communicating with their clientele?

Why does the email go to great lengths to state that information published on the timeshare industry funded website; Mind Timeshare site, is all lies? Globally, banks come in for a lot of criticism, take PPI for example, but they don’t communicate the fact in letters to their customers. Such comments would be deemed very un-business like and totally unethical. Mind Timeshare picked up on this scam way back in September 2018 and published a mirror image of the email that we have shown in this article. The name Alberto Garcia is mentioned; he was indeed the lead figure of Mind Timeshare but was not a director of any of the companies mentioned and was certainly never charged with any offences. In fact he was a former Spanish policeman, who upon his retirement was employed by the RDO to head the website. Given his connections with law enforcements, probably a good move at the time. Garcia no longer works for the RDO and the website has actually been dormant for almost a year. 

What to do?

If you should be unfortunate enough to receive an email as described above, or something similar, the first course of action would be to block the sender. Be warned you will almost certainly get a phone call to chase it up, again ignore the pitch and put the phone down. We will once more reiterate there was no court case and there is no compensation to be paid, so if you are taken in by this lousy ruse then the only loser will be 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