Scam in Alicante, Barcelona and Malaga

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    • #54100
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Sorry if this is not èxactly linked to property , but there was a report in the “Informacion” newspaper in Alicante today concerning a large fraud. I have tried to find out more details but without sucess . Does anyone on here have any input?

      According to Nigel Evans M.P.,one of his constituents has committed suicide due to the loss of his family savings.. Evans says “It is the biggest fraud in history and is a threat to homes in this country”

      He goes onto say that anti corruption police in London have denounced the activities of 300 back street financial centres based in Spain, employing 1,000 assesors AND THE AMOUNT PEOPLE HAVE LOST IS OVER 750 MILLION EUROS.

      The report goes onto say that an anonymous informer has advised the BBC of this fraud and and that the “Informacion”newspaer has access to the information.

      According to the informer young English people who are finding it difficult to find regular work in Spain have been targetted., They are offered huge financial rewards. of up to 55,000 euros a month.

      I cannot find out any more info , can anyone help.?If these stories are true hopefully this forum can warn ptential mugs of the risks involved.

      I have translated from the newspaper report.

    • #84555
      rt21
      Participant

      Although I cannot provide any background information on the specific article you refer to in your post, I did read some months ago about boiler room scams originating in Spain, which had cost some people their life savings

      I have searched the web for articles about this scam and found the attached. Although it was not the original article that I read some months ago it does give some information on the topic.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5202550.stm

      Richard

    • #84694
      rt21
      Participant

      Although I cannot provide any background information on the specific article you refer to in your post, I did read some months ago about boiler room scams originating in Spain, which had cost some people their life savings

      I have searched the web for articles about this scam and found the attached. Although it was not the original article that I read some months ago it does give some information on the topic.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5202550.stm

      Richard

    • #84585
      Anonymous
      Participant

      The new “big scam” doing the rounds and being marketed from Spanish call centres is the sale of “plots of strategic land”

      This is a farmers field where planning permission is highly unlikely to ever be gained being sold at inflated prices on the grounds that it is field close to existing housing.

      BEWARE!!!

    • #84724
      Anonymous
      Participant

      The new “big scam” doing the rounds and being marketed from Spanish call centres is the sale of “plots of strategic land”

      This is a farmers field where planning permission is highly unlikely to ever be gained being sold at inflated prices on the grounds that it is field close to existing housing.

      BEWARE!!!

    • #84605
      Inez
      Participant

      There are or were a lot of boil;er room scams here as its unregulated. They target the english etc.

      My other half is a legit mortgage broker and hates what these peoe do. I can only think its this

    • #84744
      Inez
      Participant

      There are or were a lot of boil;er room scams here as its unregulated. They target the english etc.

      My other half is a legit mortgage broker and hates what these peoe do. I can only think its this

    • #84609
      Anonymous
      Participant

      dear oh dear, is there no end to the scams in Spain?

      sounds like another case of hopeless inadequate regulation, allowing crooks to prosper (where ever they are from). If they didn’t feel so confident of getting away with it, they wouldn’t be so keen to try.

    • #84748
      Anonymous
      Participant

      dear oh dear, is there no end to the scams in Spain?

      sounds like another case of hopeless inadequate regulation, allowing crooks to prosper (where ever they are from). If they didn’t feel so confident of getting away with it, they wouldn’t be so keen to try.

    • #84613
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Inez

      whoops, cross post, saying the same thing!

    • #84751
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Inez

      whoops, cross post, saying the same thing!

    • #84619
      Anonymous
      Participant

      A friend of mine was working for “Goodman Hart Associates” back in 2001, based in Fuengirola. The scam was highly sophisticated and was set up with real “professionalism”. At the time I was looking for work, so I ask my friend if he could get me an interview.

      The interview took place in one of the bars on the strip near “fish ally” in Fuengirola. The guy, from New York told me about how much money they were making – 10’000’s of dollars per week!

      I was asked to go to an office in Benalmadena the next day for 10am. The guy who met me was also from New York and said he was an ex police officer.

      He started with the sales pitch – essentially I would be selling on the phone Ad-rent-a-car “pre placement shares”, he gave me a web address for further research and then after lunch I would start making my calls. Now this is where the sophisticated bit comes in, there actually was a company called Adrentacar, and I had seen their cars all over, from Malaga airport to Marbella!

      Later after lunch I got speaking with a guy from Holland, he was telling how he had to leave tout suite because their offices had been raided – naively I asked why? He smiled and told me how it works.

      Essentially, all the cars I had seen were being “rented” out by sales staff and people who Goodman Hart knew, the adverts on many of the cars were for “SpanTel” this too was another one of the companies that they were flogging shares in; of course this too was bone fide business from the outside. Then the killer – both companies advertised on a well know radio station which – you guessed it was also selling shares. They advertised on the cars as well. As this radio station is still operating (but under new owners I won’t name it). So to anyone from the outside, these were all independent, successful, genuine businesses.

      I was given a list of contacts, I think it was 4 or 5, after first two, I realised that this is not why I came to Spain. I left, telling the ex cop that as well!

      PS – My friend lasted another year, but left when he was not being paid!

      PPS – My next job was with Interealty (yeah I know), the person who ran SpanTel was Connor O’connor (yeah really), who was friends with Hamish Kennedy, Hamish brother is Ian Kennedy who was the Chairman of Interealty. So you can imagine how I felt when I discovered that Connor turned out to be the internet guru for the company! Ian’s dream had always been to ….. float Interealty on the stock exchange.

      My advice, for what it is worth, is don’t deal with anyone who is not regulated under the FSA in the UK.

    • #84754
      Anonymous
      Participant

      A friend of mine was working for “Goodman Hart Associates” back in 2001, based in Fuengirola. The scam was highly sophisticated and was set up with real “professionalism”. At the time I was looking for work, so I ask my friend if he could get me an interview.

      The interview took place in one of the bars on the strip near “fish ally” in Fuengirola. The guy, from New York told me about how much money they were making – 10’000’s of dollars per week!

      I was asked to go to an office in Benalmadena the next day for 10am. The guy who met me was also from New York and said he was an ex police officer.

      He started with the sales pitch – essentially I would be selling on the phone Ad-rent-a-car “pre placement shares”, he gave me a web address for further research and then after lunch I would start making my calls. Now this is where the sophisticated bit comes in, there actually was a company called Adrentacar, and I had seen their cars all over, from Malaga airport to Marbella!

      Later after lunch I got speaking with a guy from Holland, he was telling how he had to leave tout suite because their offices had been raided – naively I asked why? He smiled and told me how it works.

      Essentially, all the cars I had seen were being “rented” out by sales staff and people who Goodman Hart knew, the adverts on many of the cars were for “SpanTel” this too was another one of the companies that they were flogging shares in; of course this too was bone fide business from the outside. Then the killer – both companies advertised on a well know radio station which – you guessed it was also selling shares. They advertised on the cars as well. As this radio station is still operating (but under new owners I won’t name it). So to anyone from the outside, these were all independent, successful, genuine businesses.

      I was given a list of contacts, I think it was 4 or 5, after first two, I realised that this is not why I came to Spain. I left, telling the ex cop that as well!

      PS – My friend lasted another year, but left when he was not being paid!

      PPS – My next job was with Interealty (yeah I know), the person who ran SpanTel was Connor O’connor (yeah really), who was friends with Hamish Kennedy, Hamish brother is Ian Kennedy who was the Chairman of Interealty. So you can imagine how I felt when I discovered that Connor turned out to be the internet guru for the company! Ian’s dream had always been to ….. float Interealty on the stock exchange.

      My advice, for what it is worth, is don’t deal with anyone who is not regulated under the FSA in the UK.

    • #84625
      Anonymous
      Participant

      More background on who was/is behind adrentacar and spantel here.

      Interesting reading including a very famous/infamous name from the past 😯

      http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/special/stockfraud.nsf/0/3FB898D2E628375A86256EB4001934AF

    • #84757
      Anonymous
      Participant

      More background on who was/is behind adrentacar and spantel here.

      Interesting reading including a very famous/infamous name from the past 😯

      http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/special/stockfraud.nsf/0/3FB898D2E628375A86256EB4001934AF

    • #84631
      Anonymous
      Participant

      The article from Informaciones follows… I’m not sure as to who they are talking about, but I do know that the Spanish authorities are not concerned about one Brit ripping off another – and, unless somebody from the government is involved, the British authorities couldn’t care less either. (it happened once to my knowledge when a Brit real estate ripped off someone who worked at the Home Office… the Home Office lent on the Ministerio del Interior and the realtor was arrested and jailed!).
      We foreigners have no representation, no ombudsman, no champions and the British goverment isn’t going to send a gunboat…

      Here’s the article:

      COMUNIDAD VALENCIANA
      Levante 2008-06-23
      “Chiringuitos” financieros de Alicante y Barcelona estafan 750 millones a inversores británicos. “Es el mayor fraude de la historia y la peor amenaza que pesa hoy sobre los hogares de este país”, ha afirmado el diputado del Parlamento británico, Nigel Evans, en cuyo distrito se ha llegado a registrar un suicidio tras la pérdida de los ahorros familiares.

      Victorià Jiménez, Londres. Corresponsal

      Durante una intervención sin precedentes en la Cámara de los Comunes, Evans citó estimaciones de la policía anti-corrupción de Londres para denunciar que la cifra de chiringuitos financieros en activo y con base en España supera los 300, empleando a cerca de un millar de falsos asesores de inversiones. La cantidad defraudada hasta el momento podría sobrepasar los 750 millones de euros.
      La polémica viene provocada por las filtraciones de un informador anónimo a la cadena pública del Reino Unido, la BBC, a las que Levante-EMV ha tenido acceso exclusivo. En ellas, el ex-operario de uno de los chiringuitos indica que el grueso de las falsas agencias financieras está establecido en Barcelona y Alicante, aunque las hay por toda la costa “hasta Málaga”.
      Según el informador, “con la crisis, es más difícil conseguir un trabajo para los jóvenes ingleses que se buscan la vida por las ciudades turísticas, mientras que en esta industria tienes la ocasión de ganar miles y miles de libras”. El “juego” puede ser muy duro para aquellos que temen entrar en el mundo del crimen organizado, sin embargo “no hay de qué preocuparse. Si eres bueno, el dinero te entra a manos llenas. Al principio piensas en pasar sólo unas vacaciones, pero cuando te ves a final de mes con 40.000 libras (54.000 euros) en tu cuenta, vas a por más”, ha explicado el antiguo timador.
      “Es completamente un engaño: les haces comprar acciones por las que no reciben nada. Confían en tí porque eres británico como ellos”, señaló en sus declaraciones a la cadena de noticias, “comienzan con 10.000 libras y en pocas semanas les sacas medio millón, los ahorros de su vida”.
      Según el diputado Evans, las autoridades españolas han demostrado carecer de “sensibilidad” al no proteger a ciudadanos de un país europeo vecino: “Algunos inversores me han sugerido que la falta de colaboración de la policía española se debe a que no perciben el fraude como un peligro porque las víctimas son extranjeras”. Por su parte, la fiscal general del Reino Unido, Vera Baird, ha respondido que ambos países trabajan en común y que el gobierno británico aumentará la dotación económica contra los chiringuitos financieros en 38 millones de euros.
      Fuentes de la Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), la entidad reguladora de los servicios financieros en España, han comentado a este diario que “la capacidad de la CMNV es limitada. Esperamos que tras la reforma anunciada por el ministro [Pedro Solbes], la nueva directiva de instrumentos de inversión nos ayude a poner fin a este tipo de timo”.
      Las comarcas centrales de Inglaterra sufren el acoso de los chiringuitos financieros desde hace una década. Pero la actividad de los estafadores, que actúan fuera de la jurisdicción de las autoridades de servicios financieros del Reino Unido (la FSA), se ha disparado en 2008. La fiscalía general británica admitió esta semana pasada que reciben hasta 800 quejas cada mes.
      Las pérdidas oscilan entre las 3.500 libras esterlinas (unos 5.000 euros) y el millón, con una media de 26.000 euros por inversor y 18.000 familias afectadas en toda Gran Bretaña.

    • #84760
      Anonymous
      Participant

      The article from Informaciones follows… I’m not sure as to who they are talking about, but I do know that the Spanish authorities are not concerned about one Brit ripping off another – and, unless somebody from the government is involved, the British authorities couldn’t care less either. (it happened once to my knowledge when a Brit real estate ripped off someone who worked at the Home Office… the Home Office lent on the Ministerio del Interior and the realtor was arrested and jailed!).
      We foreigners have no representation, no ombudsman, no champions and the British goverment isn’t going to send a gunboat…

      Here’s the article:

      COMUNIDAD VALENCIANA
      Levante 2008-06-23
      “Chiringuitos” financieros de Alicante y Barcelona estafan 750 millones a inversores británicos. “Es el mayor fraude de la historia y la peor amenaza que pesa hoy sobre los hogares de este país”, ha afirmado el diputado del Parlamento británico, Nigel Evans, en cuyo distrito se ha llegado a registrar un suicidio tras la pérdida de los ahorros familiares.

      Victorià Jiménez, Londres. Corresponsal

      Durante una intervención sin precedentes en la Cámara de los Comunes, Evans citó estimaciones de la policía anti-corrupción de Londres para denunciar que la cifra de chiringuitos financieros en activo y con base en España supera los 300, empleando a cerca de un millar de falsos asesores de inversiones. La cantidad defraudada hasta el momento podría sobrepasar los 750 millones de euros.
      La polémica viene provocada por las filtraciones de un informador anónimo a la cadena pública del Reino Unido, la BBC, a las que Levante-EMV ha tenido acceso exclusivo. En ellas, el ex-operario de uno de los chiringuitos indica que el grueso de las falsas agencias financieras está establecido en Barcelona y Alicante, aunque las hay por toda la costa “hasta Málaga”.
      Según el informador, “con la crisis, es más difícil conseguir un trabajo para los jóvenes ingleses que se buscan la vida por las ciudades turísticas, mientras que en esta industria tienes la ocasión de ganar miles y miles de libras”. El “juego” puede ser muy duro para aquellos que temen entrar en el mundo del crimen organizado, sin embargo “no hay de qué preocuparse. Si eres bueno, el dinero te entra a manos llenas. Al principio piensas en pasar sólo unas vacaciones, pero cuando te ves a final de mes con 40.000 libras (54.000 euros) en tu cuenta, vas a por más”, ha explicado el antiguo timador.
      “Es completamente un engaño: les haces comprar acciones por las que no reciben nada. Confían en tí porque eres británico como ellos”, señaló en sus declaraciones a la cadena de noticias, “comienzan con 10.000 libras y en pocas semanas les sacas medio millón, los ahorros de su vida”.
      Según el diputado Evans, las autoridades españolas han demostrado carecer de “sensibilidad” al no proteger a ciudadanos de un país europeo vecino: “Algunos inversores me han sugerido que la falta de colaboración de la policía española se debe a que no perciben el fraude como un peligro porque las víctimas son extranjeras”. Por su parte, la fiscal general del Reino Unido, Vera Baird, ha respondido que ambos países trabajan en común y que el gobierno británico aumentará la dotación económica contra los chiringuitos financieros en 38 millones de euros.
      Fuentes de la Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), la entidad reguladora de los servicios financieros en España, han comentado a este diario que “la capacidad de la CMNV es limitada. Esperamos que tras la reforma anunciada por el ministro [Pedro Solbes], la nueva directiva de instrumentos de inversión nos ayude a poner fin a este tipo de timo”.
      Las comarcas centrales de Inglaterra sufren el acoso de los chiringuitos financieros desde hace una década. Pero la actividad de los estafadores, que actúan fuera de la jurisdicción de las autoridades de servicios financieros del Reino Unido (la FSA), se ha disparado en 2008. La fiscalía general británica admitió esta semana pasada que reciben hasta 800 quejas cada mes.
      Las pérdidas oscilan entre las 3.500 libras esterlinas (unos 5.000 euros) y el millón, con una media de 26.000 euros por inversor y 18.000 familias afectadas en toda Gran Bretaña.

    • #84657
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Wow, quite a can of worms. Never realised these scams existed. Makes some of the Nigerian scams sound very small beer.

      It certainly is a minefield in the investment world, perhaps the french peasants were right when they put their gold under the mattress.

    • #84773
      Anonymous
      Participant

      Wow, quite a can of worms. Never realised these scams existed. Makes some of the Nigerian scams sound very small beer.

      It certainly is a minefield in the investment world, perhaps the french peasants were right when they put their gold under the mattress.

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