Perez, Gonzalez and Associates

[garry]

I have received in the post today a letter from a Spanish company of Attorneys at Law and Legal Consultants named Perez, Gonzalez and Associates, Tel +34 690 834 708 Address :- Paseo Del Duque De Mandas 30-1B, 20012, San Sebastian The letter offers to assist in verification and payment of unclaimed fund. It states thaI should contact Dr Robert Serrano Reyes by 22nd December 2008 to initiate my claim or reinvest he money. The letter is signed by Dr Javier Moreno Gonzalez ( Senior Partner) I am suspicious of this letter's authenticity. Can anyone confirm the legitimacy of this letter and/or this firm of attorneys please Thankyou

[Lawbird Lawyer]

Update: please read this forum thread.-

Warning: Scammers passing themselves off as Spanish lawyers and law firms - Friday 13th March 2009





Dear Sir,

I refer you to our useful blog post:


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. Is the offer too good to be true? If the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

6. 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)

7. 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.

8. 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”.

9. 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.

[Unregistered]

I really did!!
i only looked at your posts as a friend sent me your way re Fortuna/Oamma scam. I will be getting in touch by email or phone about this in a day or two! i live on "the other side" - in Jerez.
Regards Don

[Lawbird Lawyer]

You're welcome!

[Dave]

I have also received the same letter today from Perez, Carrera and associates. It uses the same telephone number +34 690 834 708 but a different address 'Montford de Lemos 149-2B, 2809 Madrid' They say that my name was on a winning coupon and that a considerable amount of money 745,822.4 Euros has been invested in a company called 'Metropolitan Investments and Insurance Services'. They ask me to phone their senior Partner Dr Robert serrano Reyes before 23rd Dec 2008 to represent me in getting the money processed and forwarded to me ,otherwise the money will be re invested.

The paper that the letter came on is cheap A4 type, not what I would expect from a tem of Layers dealing with such a large amount of money. My gut feel tells me that this is likely to be a big scam where they will ask for money upfront and then come up with some excuse why the fund money cannot be made available to me.

I Would like some advice on this please.

Regards

Dave

[Lawbird Lawyer]

Dear Sir,

It's clearly a scam.

Don't pay money upfront ever to people who phone you out of the blue or send the typical nigerian letters.

Please browse our old articles and queries on Lottery scams:


Lottery Fraud: Yet Another Scam - 24th September 2001


Is the 'El Gordo Lottery Sweepstake Company' a genuine company? - 13th November 2001

[Lawbird Lawyer]

I have also received the same letter today from Perez, Carrera and associates. It uses the same telephone number +34 690 834 708 but a different address 'Montford de Lemos 149-2B, 2809 Madrid' They say that my name was on a winning coupon and that a considerable amount of money 745,822.4 Euros has been invested in a company called 'Metropolitan Investments and Insurance Services'. They ask me to phone their senior Partner Dr Robert serrano Reyes before 23rd Dec 2008 to represent me in getting the money processed and forwarded to me ,otherwise the money will be re invested.

The paper that the letter came on is cheap A4 type, not what I would expect from a tem of Layers dealing with such a large amount of money. My gut feel tells me that this is likely to be a big scam where they will ask for money upfront and then come up with some excuse why the fund money cannot be made available to me.

I Would like some advice on this please.

Regards

Dave

Update: please read this forum thread.-

Warning: Scammers passing themselves off as Spanish lawyers and law firms - Friday 13th March 2009

[Peter]

Dear Sir/Madam

I give below the following law attorney's office address:

Perez Gonzalez & Associates,Abogados,Lawyers, Rechtsanwalte
Calle Barroeta Aldamar4,48001 Bilbao. Spain.

Tel: 0034 6 725 70063, Fax: 0034 9 129 19598

I should be very grateful if you would care to check and verify the above referred attorney firm is real, genuine and bonofied registered lawyers in Spain please as I received a letter yesterday to make a claim of my win. My instinct feeling is it could well be a scam!

The letter signed by one DR Manuellus Gonzales and the point of contact is one DR Lorenzo Dias Garcia. Currently the fund is invested in Mapfre Investments and Insurance Services.

On the top left hand side adjacent to the Letter head there is a logo of a weighing balance.

Thanking you anticipation.

[Lawbird Lawyer]

Dear Sir,

The above law firm is non-existent. They are scammers. Don't pay them any funds.

[Unregistered]

Hi
this group are now using Paneta Martinez & Co as the company name and you are invited to contact Dr Lorenzo Dias Garcia to get your funds, the amount I was told was waiting for me was 735,620.50. The letter was signed by Dr Denis Francisco - Martinez.

They have improved the quality of the paper which now has a nice scale watermark.
Luckily I was brought up to believe that you always look a gift hourse in the mouth so checked them out.

Good luck with stopping them

Scam spotter.