Public Warning.- Scammers passing themselves off as Spanish lawyers and law firms
Public Warning.-Scammers passing themselves off as Spanish lawyers and law firms
Raymundo LarraÃ*n Nesbitt - Lawbird Legal Services
Friday 13th of March 2009
Foreigners should be well-advised that there are many scammers trying to pass themselves off as legitimate Spanish law firms and lawyers. They prey exclusively on foreigners and are in fact not Spanish themselves. They are mostly Nigerian (lately there's a surge of British and Irish citizens involved too). It is calculated there are over 300,000 Nigerians worldwide scamming people. The golden rule is they never scam nationals of the country in which they live in. So Nigerians located in Spain (Madrid, Málaga and Granada) scam everyone except Spanish themselves. Nigerians are among the best educated elite in Africa and their command of English is often superb.
Spanish lawyers belong to one of the Bar Associations throughout Spain. There are a total of 83. Every colleged lawyer has a registered number. It is very easy to check in less than a minute if a Spanish lawyer is legitimate i.e. registered to practice Law in Spain (just follow this link).
Besides, registered lawyers have Professional Indemnity Insurance.
These fraudsters will contact you by a cold-call, e-mail or letter offering you either of the following "services":
1.- As the only beneficiary of a Spanish inheritance from some distant (and unknown) relative in Spain that has passed away.
2.- Offering to recover resale time share deposits in ongoing court proceedings (Reclaim Certificates). They will offer you "group actions" against timeshare companies through cold-calls. Ask them how they obtained your contact details and the details of your timeshare investment. Remember that legitimate Spanish law firms never cold-call potential clients.
3.- Notifying you that you have won the Spanish Lottery (despite never having played it) as a promotion from the generous Lotto Administration.
4.- Contacting you regarding using your bank account, in exchange of a commission, for some million dollar bank transfer with origin in some dodgy place in Africa. This is known as the Nigerian Letters.
5.- Offer to assist in verification and payment of unclaimed funds of which you are the beneficiary.
6.- Acting as intermediaries in car sales at very reduced prices. They will request you deposit the funds in their lawyer's account.
Other related links.-
Timeshare Resale Scams Revealed - Beware of the Bogus Buyers -13th November 2009
Five property swindles exposed - 26th October 2009
Careful with Scammers Posing as Spanish Lawyers - 18th March 2009
Bogus Holiday Club Membership (mostly in Canaries) - 10th March 2009
Protecting Yourself from Pyramid or "Ponzi" Schemes - 21st February 2009
Fortuna Estates, Fortuna Land, Oanna Group - 8th January 2009
The Legal Case Against Fortuna Land - 8th December 2008
European Mediation Limited - 18th November 2008
Fraudulent sell of shares from Spain - Boiler rooms - UK FSA's link.
Is the 'El Gordo Lottery Sweepstake Company' a genuine company? - 13th November 2001
Lottery Fraud: Yet Another Scam - 24th September 2001
UK Foreign Office: Lottery Fraud, What to do
Warning: Avoid Holiday Clubs in Spain
Timeshare resellers: Be careful! - 23rd August 2001
Top 10 Scams of 2007
9 Tips on How to Determine if an Offer is a Scam
October 17th, 2008 @ 14:10 by admin
We are receiving a dozen queries every day asking about the legitimacy of certain offer, generally received by email or over the phone after a cold call. Unfortunately, we cannot analyze case by case, and therefore will provide a set of useful hints which will help you evaluate the legitimacy of the company or individual yourself.
The list below is provided in no particular order:
1. Is the domain name old enough? By means of a Whois search you can find out when the domain name was registered. If it’s only a few weeks old, be suspicious.
2. Are they using mobiles? – If the phones used as contact numbers are mobile numbers instead of land lines, it’s definitely not a good sign. In Spain, mobile numbers start by +34 6..
3. Have you been contacted out of the blue? – If you where cold called, or received an email from someone you don’t know, ask yourself why these people have your contact details.
4. Are you being requested to pay money upfront? This is the single most worrying point if it comes in conjunction of with one or more of the above.
5. Are they requesting you a money transfer through Western Union or similar?
6. Is the offer too good to be true? If the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
7. Is the company properly registered? – Although it’s something positive if they can provide you with company registration details, you shouldn’t give this point too much importance. Fraudsters have been registering companies for decades with the sole purpose of deceiving (e.g. dozens of companies where incorporated by fraudsters to conduct the infamous Timeshare Resale Scam)
8. Is the address for their offices correct? – Not sure why, fraudsters tend to provide you with fake addresses which don’t really exist. Check any of the online street directories and find out if the address provided is correct.
9. Something strange about their names? Funny names such as “Woley Fernandez” or “Barrister Perez Santos ESQ” are names made up by Nigerians conducting 419 advance fee scams (the terms “Barrister” or “ESQ” don’t exist in Spanish law). Also, fraudsters tend to cite fake organisms such as “The Ministry of Finance” or “The Security Company”.
10. What others are saying – Use search engines to find information about the company. Try putting the company in inverted comas, and add terms like “scam” or “fraud”. The company or individual you mention might have already been reported online as fraudsters by other people.
Needless to say, the above list shouldn’t be taken as definitive, nor the absolute legitimacy o illegitimacy of a company established based on one or more of the above points. You can use it, however, to personally evaluate the risk of the transaction.
My recommendation is that you never pay any moneys upfront if you have been contacted out of the blue. However, if you have to, before doing so always suggest the use of an escrow company (chosen by you) to hold the funds until the product or service has been delivered. If they refuse, I recommend that you back off.
Always remember; have a lawyer analyze the transaction before making any up-front payments.
Scam Lawyer Name to be added to list
Please add the name Armando Garcia or fake business name A. M. Garcia & Asociado to your list of scam lawyers. This is one my brother received from a scammer stating he was a spanish lawyer who had an inheritance for my brother.
Thank you
Please add another scammer to your list
Hi there,
I just received a letter in the mail from a Jose Abrienda Y Socio saying he is from the Solicitor y Notaries Public and is asking for further details for a 6.1Million EUR inheritance and that he wants 10% of the inheritance given to charity and split the remaining between myself and him.
Obviously dodgy, just want people to be aware.
Received letter from Diez Acociados & Abogados
All,
Add this one to your list:
Jose Antonio Lopez (Esq) 011 -34-634-158 903
(Big Inheritance - distant related family members died in the 2004 Tsunami)
Unbelievable!
Same fraud...inheritance...add this to the list
Same thing happened to me. A supposed solicitor Barr Albert Nieto Esq. contacted me by regular mail from the company "Integrated solicitors". Phone number: +34 911 019 619. Email: barralbertnieto@europe.com. Adress: Ciutad di Barcelona 09, Madrid 28007 Spain was marked on the letter.
Over the net there is a firm with different attorneys supposedly located at: Ciudad Barcelona 9
28009 Madrid, Spain.
Please note the postal code difference!
The phone on the letter was the same as the one on the web site but the fax number was different.
diez asociados & abogados
Just got a letter from Diez Asociados & Abogados - please add to the list, and thanks for the explanation on this forum.
Non Existant Spanish Law firm
Add "Borowski & Associados" to the list.
Received a letter and was advised that some non-existant distant relative "died" and left an inheritance of US$5.5M to be split 10% to a charity and the balance shared between Borowski and me. Has a good website however there is no record of the company or the so called Principal who has ESQ. LLB & Barrister at Law after his name.
Scam from "Herman & Herman Associados"
I just received a mail from Barrister Edward Herman stating that someone with a similar last name as mine passed away and now I'm suppose to act as one of his kins just to avoid the 7.5 million Euros doesn't get confiscated or declared by the Bank.
All this very well written but being suspicious and knowing that this sounded too good to be true I did some research of my own. (also why I ended here)
I did check on the website http://www.hermanlaw-es.com/ - Again, very well written same information as on the letter, name, address, phonenummer etc
But when I did a whois on the website:
Domain Name:hermanlaw-es.com
Record last updated at
Record created on 2011/1/22
Record expired on 2012/1/22
Clearly a scam!
I do not understand how lowlifes like that can live with themselves!
I might add that the scam mail I received was withing the days when I registered to website like partnerwithpaul.com and paid-surveys-at-home.com. Being naive as I am at times, thinking I could earn extra cash by doing surveys only ended having my personal information sold to strangers around the world! All this makes you feel uncertain and insecure what more they could do with it.
I can't stress this enough, PLEASE be careful when you fill out your personal information online. Even if the website clams to be secure and have privacy-statements there's a chance that's just another scam and B.S. from their part.
BE CAREFUL ONLINE!
Justin pennefather/ Australia
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Unregistered
Hi there,
I just received a letter in the mail from a Jose Abrienda Y Socio saying he is from the Solicitor y Notaries Public and is asking for further details for a 6.1Million EUR inheritance and that he wants 10% of the inheritance given to charity and split the remaining between myself and him.
Obviously dodgy, just want people to be aware.
8/10/2010 recieved the same letter exactly from Jose Abrienda, how lucky we are to all have such wealthy relatives dying around Europe leaving 6.1 mil. euros. What a scam.
Scam Paloma Gallar Y Socio
Hello,
As it did not work with 6000 Eur, they augmented the amount!?! But then it sounds still more absurd and unbelievable!
I received (in Germany) 1 or 2 days early per post exactly the same as the last mentioned on, from Barrister Mr. Paloma Gallar (Esq). too, so I would be supposed to get half of $15,500,000.00 (USD) -10% for charity!
I don't give that much my data on internet... No idea which website would have fish them up...
SCAM!BARR TONI RAMON (ESQ.)/Integrated solicitors
A family friend of mine in Thessaloniki (Greece) has just received a letter from Barr Toni Ramon,lawyer at a firm called Intergrated Solicitors in Spain.Having read the previous posts is needless to say that it matches exacty the pattern mentioned about a late person with the same last name and an account of 5.750.000 euros...
I was wondering how on earth this so called legal firm has found my friend's adress and what he should do next to protect himself.Is there an authority that deals with such issues?Is there anything we could do to prevent other people from getting tricked?
Any ideas anyone??
Thank you in advance!