Before we move on to Muca Asesores, over the years TCA has been quietly watching the actions of Inconel Administration SL who purport to be timeshare claims advisors, though we doubt that. What we do know is that they engage in cold calls to individuals who may have owned EZE Group products, ABC Lawyers and also Monster Travel stating that they can retrieve monies spent, which of course they can’t. Also on their website they state that they have had successful prosecutions and convictions against the following companies.
- MacAnthony Realty International S.L.
- Incentive Leisure Group S.L
- Instant Access S.A
- Blue Chip
- Dream Homes WorldWide
To put a few facts on a couple of these claims, in the case of MacAnthony, Darragh MacAnthony, former owner of the company has been the Chairman of Peterborough United since 2006, and still is.
Admittedly there was a court case in Spain in April 2012, he was charged with ‘Theft and Swindle’ relating to furniture packs purchased by clients of MRI Overseas Property which the clients claimed was never delivered. MacAnthony had constantly denied the claims.
Here we are in 2024 and MacAnthony is still a free man despite the possible prison sentence suggested was 8 years. The prosecution lawyer had nothing whatsoever to do with Inconel.
In the case of Incentive Leisure Group, this organisation went into insolvency in 2012 following the death of owner and brains behind the scam company, Garry Leigh who died in 2010 following a cycle accident. No company and no individual to take to court means no claim.
Blue Chip, this is still part of an ongoing Spanish police probe and until such time as the case is concluded, no claim.
Enter Muca Asesores SL
A genuine company registered in 2021 and supposedly based in Madrid. The listing for the objectives of the company are:
La Prestación De Servicios De Publicidad, Relaciones Públicas, Marketing Directo, Promoción De Ventas Publicitarias, Regalos [-] Y Reclamos Publicitarios.Aceptar, Desempeñar Y Ejecutar Comisiones, Representaciones Y Encargos De Confianza Y Cuantos Actos Impliquen Gestión A Nombre E Interés De Tercero
This translated states:
The Provision Of Advertising Services, Public Relations, Direct Marketing, Advertising Sales Promotion, Gifts [-] And Advertising Claims. Accept, Perform and Execute Commissions, Representations And Trust Assignments And Any Acts Involving Management In The Name And Interest Of A Third Party
Rather odd we would think for a company that specialises in timeshare related claims.
Where our investigation took an interesting turn is when we thought we had seen the Muca website before. After some head scratching we remembered Inconel Administration. See what we mean:
A passing resemblance we think you’ll agree. It actually doesn’t stop there, both sites are 99% mirror images of each other, don’t believe us, check for yourself:
One difference the eagle eyed amongst readers may spot is that the Muca site has a “testimonial” link, let’s take a look:
Well as for GDPR stopping the publication of names, well sort of, however, with consent of the named individual, names may be quoted, that aside, where are the testimonials? A bunch of initials are hardly testimonials and mean nothing.
Now, if they had quoted real testimonials, that would be different, but, and it’s a big but, the EU Directive 2005/29/EC bans fake online consumer reviews. Obvious from this they don’t possess any real testimonials and creating fake ones could end up with them being in very hot water.
Other observations
We looked at the objective of Muca and found they didn’t match up with any timeshare related matters, let’s do a quick check on Inconel:
Aceptar, Desempeñar Y Ejecutar Comisiones, Representaciones Y Encargos De Confianza Y Cuantos Actos Impliquen Gestion A Nombre E Interes De Terceros, De Asesoramiento Y Marketing, Siempre Que No Incidan En La Competencia Y Campo De Actuacion De Profesionales Colegiados. El Telemarketing Aplicado A T.
This translated states:
Accept, Perform And Execute Commissions, Representations and Commissions of Trust And Any Acts Involving Management On Behalf And In The Interest Of Third Parties, Advice And Marketing, As Long As They Do Not Impact The Competence And Field Of Action Of Registered Professionals. Telemarketing Applied To T.
Once again, no reference to timeshare.
Despite the registered address for both companies being Madrid and Ciudad Real respectively, we believe the operational centre is in Fuengirola, Southern Spain.
A worrying point is the method of fee collection, oh yes we forgot to say there will be fees to pay. We have all come to believe that if we pay by credit card and something goes wrong, then we can benefit from the protection and use afforded by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. For the most part this is true, however when the act came into statute, there were no such credit services as third party payment gateways.
Briefly, a third party payment gateway is an intermediate step between the customer and the seller, such as PayPal.
Problem here is the 1974 act created what is known as the DCS link:
- Debtor – You
- Creditor – Your card company.
- Supplier – the company supplying the service.
So if you transact business and pay anyone other than the supplier, in this case Inconel or Muca then the DCS link is broken. In the case of both companies they collect fees via third party payment gateways, see below:
If your credit card receipt shows PayXpert, this is who the creditor will take to be the supplier. Your grievance is not with the gateway but either Inconel or Muca, neither of which you paid, thus DCS link broken and claim refused.
TCA Comment
The obvious place to start is cold calling. The two companies mentioned both use cold calling. Secondly, the website statement regards past successes is false. Seems the cold calling is continuing because coincidentally, as we complete this article, a chat arrived from our online service:
“Visitor: Received phone calls from Spanish firm MUCA Asesores regarding ABC lawyers in the U.K. We did try to use ABC paid them a deposit of £500 and then did not use them”
Add ABC Lawyers to the list of companies where no claims are possible. ABC Lawyers never had a legal entity in Spain. As per Companies House they were UK Registered, see listing here. This then begs the question, what jurisdiction do either Spanish Lawyers or Spanish Courts have over a UK registered company? Furthermore the company was formally dissolved on 14 March 2023, no company, no claim, except S75 possibly. To handle S75 claims a Claims Management Company must be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is prohibited from taking fees in advance. All claims must be handled on a no win no fee basis. Neither Muca nor Inconel are registered with the FCA.
Finally, a search of the Spanish equivalent to Companies House reveals common directorate between some known previous scam companies and those still current:
Adding all this together we would conclude that it would be unwise to enter into dialogue with either company. The majority of claims they state they can handle and achieve restitution for, simply don’t exist.
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