Following on from our previous article we report further on the saga of the Greek scam. Once again a court case has taken place and monies have been awarded for various defunct holiday clubs, in this case Incentive Leisure Group and Designer Way Vacation Club. As per our first article we once again pose the question “how does a court in Greece have jurisdiction to try companies in Spain?” The basic story is the same although this time the scammers have gone to even greater lengths to present evidence of what scammers call “convincers”.
After quoting telephone numbers for the award to be paid (€250,124), as to be expected there is a request for monies to be paid for a spurious reason. The amount this time is €3254.34. The bogus reason is for the obtaining of a form and we quote is: European Union / EEC; D7
Supposedly this is a transfer system but we have established this is purely a Portuguese visa system for foreigners. Why would a court in Greece try to obtain a residents visa in Portugal? Explanation of the said D7 may be read here.
Our investigation
There is certainly quite a lot wrong with this scam but unfortunately very easy to miss to the untrained eye. Firstly, our caller had contacted a Greek telephone number so was convinced that the scammers were indeed in Greece. VOIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol allows for telephone numbers to be allocated globally. Many international companies have UK numbers to avoid their clients having to make international calls. One particular VOIP provider explains this quite well:
“No other business number provider makes it so easy and affordable to get virtual phone numbers in over 170 countries. There are no setup fees or cancellation costs. Buy a business phone number online and start managing calls in minutes!”
So this provider can create virtual numbers in 170 countries!
In amongst the paperwork submitted to our caller was a seven page Word document which appears to be file notes showing the progress of the case from 12th April 2018 right up to the 16th June this year. Apart from being complete rubbish there are mentions of charges that simply don’t exist, for example:
- Brexit charge – no such charge exists
- Cross border litigation charge – No such charge exists
- Brexit insurance – Does not exit
Of interest is reference to “Documents from Ramirez” this is the giveaway that this scam is likely to be run from Spain. Ramirez & Ramirez were one of the original timeshare scam companies who were exposed many years ago and have since reinvented themselves many times. There is also mention of Litigation Services, this is also a company of dubious stature based in Fuengirola southern Spain.
Other documents
Enclosed were copies of past emails one dated 14th March 2019 has this address: cassation.gr@legislator.com, legislator.com is a web based email platform similar to Gmail, or hotmail, anyone can create such an address. A website we found explains how to retrieve mail from legislator.com
An email dated 11th December 2019 quotes a domain of hellenic-republic.org, when checking this domain the site cannot be reached. Carrying out a “whois” check we see the following:
So this domain name is for sale, unlikely the Greek government would put such a domain up for sale.
A further copy email dated 26th May was sent and has the following domain; elliniki-dimokratia.org, according to “whois” this domain was registered 210 days ago, rather odd for a Greek government department to have created a domain less than a year ago but not unusual for a scammer.
The covering letter
A letter was sent from the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 24th May 2022. The letter confirms that there is a requirement to pay €3254.34. The letter quotes Hellenic Ministerial Decree 27765/2010, try as we did, we could find no such decree. The odd part is the request for funds requires that they are paid to an individual:
Ask yourself, why would you make a payment to an individual, surely the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs have corporate bank accounts, of course they do.
The address of the payee as shown does not exist:
We tried the “Did you mean” and the address translated doesn’t match it shows as Leof. Galatsiou 116. Another interesting point is if you look closely at the letterhead you can clearly see that the logos are a cut and paste.
A copy of the entire letter may be downloaded here:
The bank letter
Another convincer used is a letter from the National Bank of Greece dated 11th December 2019. The letter quotes a sum of €70,974, quite where this fits in is unknown. Apparently this sum is being held by the bank ready for transfer to our caller. Once again the letter appears to have been a cut and paste look at the address and you will see shading.
The letter is supposedly signed by Pavlos Mylonas but is merely a computer generated signature. For such a large sum would you not think Mr Mylonas would have actually signed this, especially as it is an important document:
Pavlos Pavlos Mylonas incidentally is real; he is in fact the CEO of NGB. We wonder if he knows he is being dragged into this scam. He will do soon as we will make him aware of this article. The full letter may be downloaded here:
Our comments
Well these scammers have gone the extra mile in trying to persuade their victims that all is real and above board but obviously it’s not. We must emphasise how important it is to be on your guard. As we have said on numerous occasions, how do you win a court case that you have had absolutely no involvement in. Remember a court case consists of plaintiffs and defendants. In this case you are the plaintiff, how is it you know absolutely nothing about a case that’s happened behind your back.
As a minimum the court would require a witness statement. We are pleased our caller made us aware of this Mk2 Greek scam and luckily for him he has saved €3,254.34. As the old adage goes:
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