A few weeks ago we reported on a scam law firm that were charging for a nonexistent form known as a “Brexit Stamp Fee” form, which according to the scammers needed to be obtained, and paid for, before any compensation payment could be made. As if that wasn’t laughable enough we now have Servicos Legales Barcelona asking for a Value Proceed Document which is apparently required by the European Court of Justice. Once again this form does not exist.
According to the scammers they state the following:
“The Value Proceed Document along with the compensation amount must be registered with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This document must clearly state that you are the beneficiary and with full clarification of the legitimacy of the funds”.
Naturally all the above information is a blatant lie. We will now proceed to our investigation.
Our investigation
First off, the name chosen by this scam outfit is quite clever Servicios Legales translates from Spanish to legal services, even if you add Barcelona to the search, Google reveals 562 million results, not surprising as virtually every law firm in the Spanish speaking world will have reference to their covered” legal services” on their websites so a Google search is of little value to confirm validity.
Whist on the subject of websites, these scammers have actually registered the domain name of http://www.servicioslegalesbarcelona.com/, problem is, the domain was only registered on 27th Sept 2021 so barely two months old as we write. Also when accessing the site there is simply one page that only has an email link. No contact address no phone number or any details of the firm, below is a screenshot of the site:
A check of Spanish Companies House also reveals no such company as being registered. The contact letter sent quotes a telephone number 0034 603… Any Spanish number that begins with either 6 or 7 is a mobile phone, how many bona fide law firms use mobile phones? Spanish landlines start with the number 9. Barcelona in particular has dialling codes 931 to 938. The real telephone contact number for the court stated on the correspondence is 0034 934 866078, give them a call, we doubt the signatory on the documentation sent, one Sofia de Lion will be there to take your call.
The sting
As with all scams there has to be a reason for you to show interest. In this case the scammers are targeting individuals who have already paid monies to other rogue companies such as Blue Chip, which seems to be the current flavour. The fact that a court case has happened and monies have been awarded is the same pattern that most scammers are using nowadays. Problem here, as we have stated on many occasions, there never has been a court case and neither is there likely to be. No court case, no compensation.
The communication is delivered with an invoice which in this case was for £2,450 this is presumably for payment to obtain the nonexistent “Value Proceed Document”. A redacted copy of the invoice may be viewed by clicking the link below. When examining the invoice, the first point is that Spanish courts do not issue invoices but even if they did they would be on official court documentation, not a standard template downloaded from Microsoft Word and of course would be in Spanish. A simple point would be the word “invoice” would not appear, the Spanish would quote “Factura”
As a further point, why, for a country that uses Euros would the invoice be in Sterling? In addition why would Spanish courts not only have a Royal Bank of Scotland account, especially one whose sort code leads to Greenock in Scotland but also requires the payment to be in favour of an individual not the court itself? Please further note, the invoice requests a bank transfer. As we continually point out, there is little or no protection for bank transfers, money paid will equate to money lost.
Our advice
All in all this scam is fraught with inaccuracies and downright lies and should be avoided at all costs. Once again, we reiterate, there has been no court case, there is no Value Proceed Document, there are no funds held anywhere in the world waiting to be paid to you. If you engage with these types of scams the only winner will be the scammer.
The documentation that accompanies the contact letter contains so called court documents but once again all is fake. This is yet another example of a well executed scam which, to the untrained eye, looks authentic but far from it. If you receive contact from this or for that matter any other unsolicited contact offering to pay you money, run a mile! It’s bad enough that you have been scammed once, don’t add insult to injury by getting caught again.
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