Search:     Go  
The Spanish Lawyer Online
The Spanish Lawyer Online

Spanish Law Tribune

Keeping up-to-date with Spanish Law
Home > Litigation > Careful with Scammers Posing as Spanish Lawyers

Careful with Scammers Posing as Spanish Lawyers

March 18th, 2009

who is this businessmanWithin the last year we’ve seen an alarming increase in the number of queries regarding the legitimacy of certain Spanish law firms and lawyers. These companies are in fact non-existent and act only as shelter companies devised to fleece foreigners offering them dubious legal services often related to some murky financial interest, which is in the end nothing but some sort of advance fee fraud (http://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud). Foreigners should be well advised that these scammers pass themselves off as legitimate Spanish law firms and lawyers. They prey exclusively on foreigners and are in fact not even Spanish themselves. Their command of English is very good.

Spanish lawyers belong to one of the numerous Bar Associations that sprawl throughout Spain. There are a total of 83. Every lawyer member of a BA will have a registered number. It is very easy to check in less than a minute if a Spanish lawyer is legitimate, providing he is in fact registered of course.

These fraudsters will always contact you to offer legal assistance in some service of which you by chance are the sole lucky beneficiary. The potential reward to reap is huge (hundreds of thousands if not millions) in exchange of a reasonable legal fee which in comparison doesn’t seem like much. The preffered contact method is email (which they may follow up by ordinary post), and they will offer you either of the following legal “services”:

  1. Letting you know that after a long and winding investigation it has surfaced that you are the sole live beneficiary of a considerable Spanish inheritance from some distant relative you had in Spain (unbeknown to you) that has sadly passed away.
  2. Offering you to join group actions to recover deposits from bogus resale time share companies in ongoing court proceedings (Reclaim Certificates (http://www NULL.thisismoney NULL.co NULL.uk/news/columnists/article NULL.html?in_article_id=401923&in_page_id=19&in_author_id=5)).
  3. Notifying you that you have won the Spanish Lottery (despite never having played it) or that you have been selected in a random draw and are now the lucky beneficiary of a special promotion from the generous Spanish Lotto Administration.
  4. Contacting you regarding using your bank account, in exchange of a sizeable 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 you in the verification and payment of unclaimed funds located in Spain of which you happen to be the only beneficiary.

An example of enquiries about such bogus firms are the following:

  • Martinez e Beneficio (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/forums/showthread NULL.php?t=117)
  • Alberto Ganez Y Socio (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/forums/showthread NULL.php?t=155)
  • Perez, Gonzalez and Associates (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/forums/showthread NULL.php?t=97) & Perez, Carrera and Associates (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/forums/showthread NULL.php?t=97)

Our recommendation, as always, is to never ever pay moneys upfront if you have the slightest suspicion about the legitimicay of the people you are dealing with.

We have compiled a list of bogus law firms (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/forums/showthread NULL.php?t=382)which is continously updated.

 
Other interesting related links:

  • Protecting Yourself from Pyramid or “Ponzi” Schemes – 21st February 2009
  • Fraudulent sell of shares from Spain – Boiler rooms (http://www NULL.fsa NULL.gov NULL.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Law/Alerts/overseas NULL.shtml) UK FSA’s link.
  • Timeshare resellers: Be careful! (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/articles/showArticle/timeshare-reselling-scam) – 23rd of August 2001
  • Lottery Fraud: Yet Another Scam (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/articles/showArticle/gordo-sweepstakes-scam) – 24th September 2001
  • Is the ‘El Gordo Lottery Sweepstake Company’ a genuine company? (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/questions/showQuestion/133-Is-the-%27El-Gordo-Lottery-Sweepstake-Company%27-a-genuine--company-)
  • European Mediation Limited (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/forums/showthread NULL.php?t=77)
  • Bogus Holiday Club Membership (mostly in Canaries) (http://www NULL.marbella-lawyers NULL.com/forums/showthread NULL.php?t=365)

Litigation , ,

  1. November 20th, 2015 at 14:54 | #1

    They are still at it! letter to a deceased relative from JAR & ABOGADOUS signed Barr, Juan, Antonio Ruiz has 12,700 euro must be the magic number. Please get a real paying job instead of trying to scam people!

  2. Lynn
    December 1st, 2015 at 00:45 | #2

    In November, 2015, I received a similar letter from Nicolas & Associates (Nicolas Gonzalez Deleito) mailed to me in Canada — in a window envelope with no return address. A Spanish real estate mogul died of heart failure resulting in the death of all his family members in a fatal auto accident in 2008 — come on! Do these scam artists really believe people are that gullible?
    I reported it to http://www.antifraudcentre.ca (http://www NULL.antifraudcentre NULL.ca) our Canadian government site where it is just logged and no action taken. Great. I cannot understand why these people are not prosecuted by some agency – they even leave an email address. There are certainly a number of us reporting it to these sites.

  3. ronald nealis
    December 7th, 2015 at 15:32 | #3

    Please watch out for someone posing as Juan Antonio Ruiz offering 12.7 million euro as the account holder has passed away and he has found you as next of kin. very, very plausible and has Santander web site and documents to go with this be aware all fruadulent send no money ever!!

  4. martyn
    December 8th, 2015 at 15:29 | #4

    Received a letter from Jar and Abogados this morning asking me to agree to claiming to be a next of kin of a man who had died in Spain leaving
    12,700,000 euros in a bank. The hook being that 20% would go to charity and the remainder be split 50/50 between me and this Barrister Juan Anthony Ruiz ( Spanish lawyer)if it did not offend my moral ethics. Well it does !! and scum like this need targeting and prosecuting before other less astute people are conned out of a lot of money.

  5. Graham
    December 8th, 2015 at 22:31 | #5

    Had the same letter as Elaine above. Same amount – same Company and signee names. Funny how we inherited the same amount. But won’t let it change my life………

  6. bruce yoakum
    December 10th, 2015 at 20:36 | #6

    I also received letter from jar & abogados, 12,700,000.00 euros

  7. Laughing
    December 11th, 2015 at 13:20 | #7

    just got a letter in the mail
    Jorge Marcelino Gomez (Jorge MG Abogados) – I am now so rich 11.2M USD !!!!

    I can’t understand why these guys are still trying to scam – spending their time and money on mail and phones – go get a real job.

    +34 604 124 843 – you can throw this sim in the bin.

  8. John
    December 15th, 2015 at 05:21 | #8

    @Lynn pretty amazing, same letter here in Australia 14-Dec-15, they got name from white pages they stated. 8 million euros and they want 50% ??? As if !! this site cam up,as #1 on Google search, well done.

  9. Ken Paul
    December 19th, 2015 at 00:08 | #9

    18 December 2015. Hello Lynn I have had the exact same letter sent to me in Western Australia. I have stated that I am not a relative of the deceased, however he still pushes the case. He even wants to telephone me also wants me to fly over to Spain to visit him.
    I think I will now refer him to this website and he will then realise that I have been having a lend of him.
    Ken.

  10. Taiyon Dodson
    December 21st, 2015 at 23:55 | #10

    This will be the second time I received something like this. I got my keys today (12/21/15). And I knew it was as scam because I’m African American and I don’t know nor have any relatives in Spain.

  11. Mrs Lawes
    January 20th, 2016 at 20:33 | #11

    Weve recently been contacted by a solicitor or legal office in spain in claiming to be able to help us with our Reclaim Certificate worth £13995.00. They said we had been awarded a nice sum, but we would need to pay Spanish tax before the funds could be released. We paid by bank transfer just short of £2500. Its been ongoing since May 2015. All of the forms looked to be genuine. Have we been scammed again. DWVC have a lot to answer to. Is there anything we can do? We are at our whits end. Thank you.

  12. February 4th, 2016 at 17:57 | #12

    Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    They are still at it, my friend who does not have a computer was contacted by post, by ECO & ABOGADOS about an alleged relative killed in the Madrid bomb carnage of 11th march 2004 offering a 40% share of 12,700,000 euros.

    Pull the other one.

  13. Caz
    February 8th, 2016 at 08:33 | #13

    I’ve just received a similar letter from a Francisco Blanco of Eco & Abogados, Attorney at Law from Madrid and, low and behold, I am supposedly entitled to a 40% share in a 12,700,000 euros inheritance of some relative with the same surname who died unexpectedly in a tragic train accident. Thank heavens for the internet where these scam letters can be checked out and all the ingredients are there, the link to a news site regarding the accident as well as the identical amount of money. I have received scam emails before but this is the first actual letter which has promptly been shredded.

  14. Mac
    March 31st, 2016 at 19:05 | #14

    Just got a letter talking about a possible windfall of 7.5 million Euros from Monroe Abogados. Add it to the list!

  15. H Newbold
    April 7th, 2016 at 12:43 | #15

    I received my letter this morning. Despite being incorrectly addressed the local post office went to trouble to deliver it I commend their effort but I know they will be very upset to know that they delivered a spam letter which may have resulted me if I wasn’t fully aware of this sort of thing parting with money. Let’s hope these people are brought to justice.

  16. B. Falzon
    April 19th, 2016 at 05:08 | #16

    A few days ago I’ve received a letter from Spain, from a so called Solicitor by the name of “Adolfo Nickolas”, “{written in perfect English off course}” Informing me, that a could be relative of mine who was a very succsseful business man had died and left me an inheritance of $750 million dollars .
    In the letter there is every return contact details supplied that anyone can think off.

  17. Ida
    June 2nd, 2016 at 03:55 | #17

    I can add another company … Reynaldo Abrego
    abregoreynardo@gmail.com (abregoreynardo null@null gmail NULL.com)
    Remel International

  18. Robin Nilsson
    June 7th, 2016 at 20:28 | #18

    Adolfo Nicholas sent a paper mail (which costs postage …) to my wife containing the usual blabla (the english was reasonable but not good).
    The sum was only 7.5 million US $ (not the 750 millions mentioned in a previous post (B. Falzon above), sort of annoys me that someone else got a better “deal” than my wife did 😉 )
    The printout was of substandard quality with ghost text from a poorly maintained printer. The surname of my wife and the deceased “relative” was printed with a slightly different font, size and saturation (blackness) so it looked like some cheap advertising mail template with .
    Two different gmail-addresses were used: adolfonicolalas9@gmail.com (adolfonicolalas9 null@null gmail NULL.com) and adonicolaso@gmail.com (adonicolaso null@null gmail NULL.com).

  19. June 9th, 2016 at 07:00 | #19

    here,s another scumbag :jose abogados/joseph michael swords,dated 9/5/16 then rubber stamped with a date of Dec 2016 .This just high lights their intelligence.

  20. Ahil
    June 14th, 2016 at 03:26 | #20

    received a letter dated April 18, 2016, from Cremades & Abogados, $13.4 million and did not realize that I had an inheritance from someone with my last name not realizing that my last name is not my family name. Good try. I wonder how do these people get the name and address as I received the letter via mail from Spain.

  21. Bethany Van oorschot
    July 1st, 2016 at 14:59 | #21

    @Elaine
    Just received the same later as you today. They didn’t even get my address right.

  22. Michelle
    July 5th, 2016 at 22:50 | #22

    July 5, 2016
    Received letter from Spain stating he was a lawyer and that he searched Canada’s records and found my name and that I might be the relative of his client who died intestate and left 7.5M euros. What the kicker is that he used the name of my son as his client. What scamers…I have had it this year with the income tax scams and now this one. Can’t the government go after this scums.

  23. A OGLE
    July 18th, 2016 at 12:24 | #23

    Recipe EC letter this morning from jar & avocados to agree to carry out a con to receive a share of 12.000,000 from a non existent relative who has recently died .This was from a Barr,Juan Antonio ruiz ,a so called spanish solitor

  24. Anthony
    July 22nd, 2016 at 07:01 | #24

    And still at it in 2016. Snail-mail letter delivered to my home in Australia. Lure of possible inheritance from a deceasedunknown long lost family member residing in Spain apparently, till death, with no identifiable inheritor (Ha!!). Contact given as a fictitious Enrique fernandez, emails are: info@MLabogadosyeconomista.ml (info null@null MLabogadosyeconomista NULL.ml) & enriquefernandez@email.com (enriquefernandez null@null email NULL.com) & enriquefernandez@mlabogadosyeconomistas.ml (enriquefernandez null@null mlabogadosyeconomistas NULL.ml) . Address given as: Paseo de la Castellana, 210 po 48 Madrid Spain Cooperate Headquarters Tel/Fax +34 911 881 446 Bufete ML Abogados Y Economistas . What a load of rubbish…& I note that lately (2016) I have been subject to a flurry of internet/email scam attempts too. Clearly, the longer one uses the internet (decade or so), obviously, the worse and more sophisticated the endless attempts, even going as far to post snail-mail, to attempt scams upon unsuspecting. trust nothing and no-one!!

  25. gloworm
    July 30th, 2016 at 10:31 | #25

    Just received a letter from Eco-Abogados telling me of a relative who has died in 2008, in a Madrid air crash, and left a secret account worth 6,700,000 euros. What pure scam. The Attorney at law is named as Jaimez B Hay. BE AWARE OF THIS TYPE OF LETTER AS IT IS A TOTAL SCAM.

  26. Bebe
    August 4th, 2016 at 19:40 | #26

    @B. Falzon
    I received exactly the same letter today!, from the same person and same amount!.

  27. Bebe
    August 4th, 2016 at 20:09 | #27

    @Robin Nilsson
    I got exact the same letter send to my parents house in Sweden!

  28. Dave
    August 6th, 2016 at 16:07 | #28

    @Robin Nilsson, @Bebe

    I moved to Sweden some years back, and then I moved to a new house within Sweden just a month ago.

    I got the same letter for the same amount with the same contact person within a “postage paid” envelope from the UK to my new address.

    Here’s something interesting though – the letter was delivered to my post box by someone in a white van at 3:30am!

    It looks to me therefore like there’s a network of them working together in several countries.

  29. Gregg
    August 10th, 2016 at 18:01 | #29

    My mother-in-law received a bogus letter from Madrid with long lost relative who died and left a fortune scenario.

    I wish these people would get a real legit job and actually work for a living!!

  30. August 17th, 2016 at 08:37 | #30

    I receive at the moment the same kind of fax!

  31. Daniela
    August 17th, 2016 at 09:26 | #31

    Jar & Abogados are still in the business, just got a fax this morning saying that some relative of my boss has died leaving 5.5 million Euro. Same thing as already described, 10% going to charity and the rest will be split 50/50 between them and us. As we are Swiss, the fax is in German, stamped and signed by Dr. Nerea Luque.
    Very poor scam…. They even sent this to our company fax number!!

  32. Zoltan
    August 27th, 2016 at 11:51 | #32

    The 7.5 million Euro in 2016. A think, the late Mr. David D… in Spain had much more money, so I am completly upset now. Where the hell is the rest of his treasure??? 🙂 🙂

    By the way, I’am from Sweden, and the letter came from Spain, Valencia, from a certain “Pedro Norman Ramiro”. He says: “I am Pedro Norman Ramiro Attorney/Solicitor, working with Guillermo and co Abogados-Asesores International in Spain. I got your detailde contact information through your country’s public archive….” blah, blah, blah.

    Obviously it is a scam, but it is interesting. Why me from the 6-7billion on the Earth? Why wanted somebody in Spain to pay postletter to Sweden to me?

  33. katpud
    September 6th, 2016 at 17:00 | #33

    My friend too recieved this sort of letter today from JAR & ABOGADOS in Madrid, Spain saying she has the same name and has inherited 12,700 euros only she changed her name so could not possibly be classed as a next of kin to this person. The letter has also been posted in England and not Spain. My friend is elderly and might have possibly been taken in by these crooks thank goodness she showed the letter to me. Something should be done about these people they are obivously working from Britain and not Spain so something should be able to be done.

  34. Joe Essaye
    September 6th, 2016 at 18:13 | #34

    Letter re 7.5million Euros of remote relative with no successors except POSSIBLY me received from
    Levont Abogados Carrer de Paris 130 (F4-6) Barcelona 08036
    Tel 34672 817 455 Fax 34 967 961 367
    Vizcaino L. Miguel Tel 34 604 371 595 Fax 34 967 961 367
    Miguelvizcainol@levontabogados.com (Miguelvizcainol null@null levontabogados NULL.com)
    Miguelvizcainodavid@gmail.com (Miguelvizcainodavid null@null gmail NULL.com)
    These details are for passing to tracing authorities. Good luck

  35. Payne Family
    September 8th, 2016 at 12:18 | #35

    I received a lettre from the company ‘MONROE ABOGADOS’, Spain. A certain mr. Raul G. Almanzar. We live in Belgium. First an e-mail, later by post saying a relative died leaving us 7.500.000. Nice try!!

  36. Anna Jones
    September 10th, 2016 at 01:40 | #36

    I just received a scam letter from Aldolfo Nicolas, seriously I work in finance

  37. Lisa
    September 10th, 2016 at 02:07 | #37

    I received a letter from remel International Abocados stating that I inherited 11.5M Euros :))) Made my day!

  38. Peter
    September 23rd, 2016 at 14:51 | #38

    I have received a letter dated 9/9/16 from JAR & ABOGADOS (Barr. Juan Antonio Ruiz) offering me €12,700,000.00 for the death of an unknown relative in Spain who had worked at the Asturiana de zinc S.A. Spain mining and smelting company. Addressed to calle de Velazquez 86 – 94 28006 Madrid Spain. Phone number 0034 911 899 574

    Reference number EUR/ESP/IMZ307-16

    SCAM

  39. Linz
    November 8th, 2016 at 07:02 | #39

    I think next time they should use a better letterhead that is not faded and half the letters missing ! ! Losers but shocked how far people will go .. Was embarrassing reading it and how desperate these people are Maybe a job might help fund better quality paper and ink

  40. Roy
    November 15th, 2016 at 21:56 | #40

    Recieved an email from a Coral Lau Fernandez somebody sharing my surname had tragically died and making me a potential heir to a 75million euro fortune!! Unfortunately my surname is Smith so ya know, common. What a dumbass.

  41. Spigge
    November 25th, 2016 at 18:59 | #41

    Leaving in Sweden.
    I’ve got a later from Nicolas Simon Garcia from MJ Hayes Abogados International placed in Avd De Francia, 45-06-46023-Valencia-Spain
    about a deposit of E 8,700,000.00 after a death of a person with the same surname as mine. That is not more but a crime. Anybody, please don’t get this method of naivity and put the later into the trash.

  42. caren
    December 2nd, 2016 at 16:03 | #42

    My Dad in Canada received a similar letter from a Nicolas Simon Garcia out of Spain MJ Hayes Abogados International, Valencia, Spain for a deceased possible relative for over 8,000,000,000 euros. Needless to say I told them is was a scam.

  43. December 6th, 2016 at 20:00 | #43

    Same letter here.
    Apparently a Spanish relative of mine just left $8.75Million Euro. Wow!!!
    I grew up in the USA and moved to Europe about 22 years ago. What are the odds of being Spanish…I don’t have any spanish blood in me…but my last name is definitely from Spain. 🙂

    STAY AWAY – JUST ANOTHER SCAM!!!– signed by
    Nicolas Simon Garcia from MJ HAYES ABOGADOS INTERNATIONAL – Valencia Spain
    nicolassimongarcia@gmail.com (nicolassimongarcia null@null gmail NULL.com)

    Phone 34 602074103.
    (Yes, I was advised in the letter to “keep proposal confidential”). SUSPECT #1

  44. Varbro
    December 22nd, 2016 at 00:37 | #44

    20 December 2016
    Just received a scam letter from a attorney
    Mr Victor Sentis Hortet claiming a relative died in a accident and a inheritance of 9million dollars is in a bank in Spain.
    This is a scam as I have no relations in Spain
    He uses tel 34632378044 and e-mail svithorlaw@gmail.com (svithorlaw null@null gmail NULL.com)
    Looks like a scammer from Nigeria

  45. Ksenia
    January 12th, 2017 at 16:20 | #45

    Received a post mail from Manuel Felix Bargados yesterday. Of course, it seemed extremely odd from the very first sight, but nevertheless I’m glad I found this forum. My surname is EXTREMELY uncommon (the Russian one, even in my home country you could barely find anyone with it), so, I was just wondering, how the heck this bastard has found my address? It’s kind of freaky and spooky, how somebody used my address that easily.. should I be scared yet? Or do I need to forget this stuff unless I get anything else?

  46. julia
    January 30th, 2017 at 18:36 | #46

    @Ida
    me too!

  47. Jodi
    February 6th, 2017 at 23:03 | #47

    Just got a letter and thank God I searched it and found this page. Thank you for making it easy for people not to be scammed.

  48. Sofia
    February 25th, 2017 at 17:20 | #48

    Great! I have inheritated of €5,200,000 ! I need to negotiate with Manuel Felix Bargados from Josel Abogados 🙂 What a bunch of idiots.

  49. Per Sørensen
    March 1st, 2017 at 20:10 | #49

    I received a posted letter from the Spanish lawyer firm Josel Abogados dated 23.02.2017. They want me to act as a relative to a deceased client with the same family name as mine (and 108.669 others in Denmark).
    If this is not against my ethics, I will receive 60% of 5.250.000 EUR.
    Unfortunately this is against my moral ethics.

  50. Warner
    March 8th, 2017 at 09:51 | #50

    I received yesterday a letter from a legal representative, Ramon Talavera Migue, of the Gomez-Aebo & Pombo Abogados law firm needed my help securing 10,500,000.00 from the estate of a deceased client with the same last name as me. There’s no one in my family going back generations with that name. As many of the others posted here before me, THE LETTER AND REQUEST IS A SCAM!!! The law firm allegedly is based in Madrid, but the letter was sent from Lisbon, Portugal. And who knows the actual origin…?

    Is there no way Spanish or European authorities can find this individual/ these individuals who are obviously criminals? Imagine all the people scammed who do not or cannot find this website. I am also grateful that I found this website.

Comment pages

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *