Silverpoint clients need to watch out for the latest scam promising quick pay-outs and using fake court sentences.
How does the scam work?
Below we analyse the sequence of events that occurred – as reported to us by a Belgium couple who lost over €5,000 in April. The couple owned a timeshare week in Hollywood Mirage, Tenerife.
1) The couple receive a phone call at the beginning of the week from a man who claimed to be from “Timeshare Mediation Services Ltd”. He spoke fluent French and used a mobile phone number from Barcelona.
2) The caller claimed that the court in Tenerife had recovered money from the Silverpoint bankruptcy process that was ring-fenced for the claimants to collect. The amount to be paid out was €27,520 plus legal costs (he referred to these as “taxes”) of €5,228. He said that the official court ruling would be later the same week.
3) In order for the money to be paid to the claimant the caller requested the upfront payment of the €5,228 for “taxes”.
4) Later the same week the caller sent a fake simplified 1-page court sentence in Spanish that used the claimants´ names and mentioned the two quantities – €27,520 plus legal costs of €5,228. The two amounts would be sent to the clients if they provided their bank account details and also paid over the €5,228 upfront – which was to be refunded. You can see a copy of this document below:
5) Early the following week the claimants sent the caller the €5,228. Immediately after the money had been received by the scammers, they stopped replying to emails and the phone number ceased to work.
Too good to be true
Our lawyers reviewed what happened and pointed out the following points that were early proofs that the fake sentence was part of a scam
- The fake sentence has a case number related to 2022 in Arona court, which is not possible, as by now these cases are heard as part of the bankruptcy process. In any case such a case would never be finished in just 4 months.
- A phone call to Maria José Arroyo Arroyo, the court barrister mentioned in the fake document, revealed that the clients were never represented by her.
Have you been promised a quick pay-out or received a court sentence you are not sure about?
The timeframe from starting a claim in the Spanish courts until receiving a pay-out is never fast. If anyone contacts you promising a quick pay-out, especially in exchange for the payment of upfront fees you should be extremely wary.
If you have any doubts about the veracity of a sentence that you have received – feel free to contact us at the Nordic consulting where our lawyers and barristers can check the document for validly on your behalf.
