Basically this is just a cut and paste of so many fake Spanish law firm scams we have exposed over the years. For those who can be bothered to play “spot the difference” a catalogue of this rogues gallery may be found here. Below we will once again go over both the supposed law firm and the scam being perpetrated.
The company
Simple, there isn’t one. Having checked Spanish Companies House, we could find no record of this organisation. The kind scammers did supply the number of their Spanish company registration, or CIF as it is known. The number quoted is A21875848 so we checked it, just in case Mediation Services is a “trading as”. As to be expected we were met with “No se han encontrado resultados para los datos de búsqueda indicados.” Which translated says; couldn’t find any results from the data provided. So there we have it, no company exists.
The corporate address, Calle Miradas 11, Edificio Lamalas 2, 38001 Santa Cruz, Tenerife, when searching Google maps that also doesn’t exist, so we are off to a flying start. The signatory of the 4 page letter full of rubbish which we will look at later is Jorge Galan Fulano, he is signed as “Abogado” which is Spanish for Solicitor/lawyer. Spain has a register, where, much like the UK Solicitors Regulation Authority, has all Solicicitors registered (Abogacía Española Consejo General). Again, no surprise, Señor Fulano is not listed. The website has a complete line up of lawyers, sad though we are; we checked them all in the same way as we did Señor Fulano, strangely, or not as the case may be, none of the names show on the Spanish register. More on the website later.
The scam
It’s the old Mark Cushway, Silverpoint court case, you know the court case that hasn’t, and won’t take place, but according to the scammers it has and the lucky recipient has been awarded the sum of €26,638 by the courts, and for the ridiculously low sum of €870 this nice law firm will handle all the paperwork, and within two shakes of a donkeys tail the money will be transferred to the lucky recipient, except it won’t.
Apart from mention of Mark Cushway, Eugen Kaiser is also cited. Firstly Mr Kaiser had at no time any involvement with Resort Properties or Silverpoint. Furthermore the sad news that we need to point out to these scammers is that Mr Kaiser passed away last month.
The letter, as we said runs to 4 pages and is all complete nonsense, there are active links to the Spanish tax office and also a completely fictitious statement that this mob has access to obtain account details from the Banco de España, here, again, a link is provided to add credibility. As usual, the letterhead is “puffed up” with logos from organisations they purport to belong to, see below:
Apart from the central registry we searched earlier we checked the rest, same results, no record of the company, no record of the individual lawyers, mug shots of whom are shown below:
For those with a keen eye, you may observe the first three photos seem to have been taken in exactly in the same place, to the inch. Also the photos clearly show that photoshop or similar has been used to place the individuals against the background.
We are in no doubt that the fee of €870 will be just the beginning, once the scammers have their victim on the hook there will be demands for further payments such as translation fees, bank charges, Spanish tax etc. By the time they are through with their victim substantial funds will have been stolen.
The website
Yes there is one and much like everything else concerning Mediation Services its all lies. To add credibility this supposed law firm has padded out the site with their so called services. Given that none of the lawyers exist its obvious that the site is purely there to add a further convincer to the scam.
Interestingly, the domain name was originally registered in March 2022, however an update was listed in August 2023, this date is what we believe to be the purchase date of an already used domain. As these are new players the date in August would be in line with the launch of their scam.
TCA comment
So we have a law firm that doesn’t exist trading from offices that don’t exist, employing lawyers who don’t exist handling proceeds from a court case that doesn’t exist. We think you will agree that the chance of you getting any financial compensation equally doesn’t exist. What does exist is that if you fall for this, then for sure you will end up effectively throwing your hard earned money down the drain. For those interested, a copy of the complete nonsense scam letter may be downloaded here.
About the only true fact we have established is that this outfit are almost certainly operating from Tenerife, albeit that their office address is fake. Tenerife has for many years been the hotbed of timeshare scams, Mediation Services is just another name we can add to the growing list of Tenerife scammers.
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