Passport scam - do not send anyone a copy of your passport

Post scam emails to warn other rental owners, or if you are not sure if an enquiry is genuine, put it up here and see what others think.
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

I must admit that the Spanish banks are less stringent than ours.
If I ring about anything. I just need the account numbers and their happy to discuss the account with me.
I know we moan at times about the way things are done in the UK. but now we know why we have to jump through so many hoops.
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

I sent a warning to Phil at Rentinspain

and he has sent a warning to his owners.
Last edited by Big Sis.. on Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Discussing the fraud with the British passport authorities seems a good start. Unfortunately there is no way of making contact with them by 'phone from abroad other than via 0300 prefixes which don't function; at least from Switzerland they don't.

I am awaiting a reply by email.

MG
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pambon
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Post by pambon »

Big Sis.. wrote:I must admit that the Spanish banks are less stringent than ours.
If I ring about anything. I just need the account numbers and their happy to discuss the account with me.
I know we moan at times about the way things are done in the UK. but now we know why we have to jump through so many hoops.
MG I'm so very sorry about all this.

My Italian bank hands out telephone info. to me because, as well as knowing me by sight, they recognise my English intonation! I think they also do it with customers they know well. However, they told me that they don't do it with all the customers, so I'm not sure how they judge to whom they divulge info to a customer on the phone.

Certainly the security here is not as stringent as the UK measures which nearly drive me mad. The idea of having an account solely for receiving rental funds and then passing them into one's own personal account is a good idea, but technically shouldn't we keep rental monies in a separate account until the guests have been and gone?
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

MG it sounds like you are having a nightmare, my sympathies.
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

I received this in a Newsletter from Spain Holiday today.

Edited by Big Sis!

So the conclusion is NEVER SEND YOUR PASSPORT OR NIE in an e-mail to a person you do not know. It is the same as sending them your real passport or NIE document.''
Last edited by Big Sis.. on Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tizfata
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Post by Tizfata »

I think SpainHoliday did a wonderful thing.
What is "NIE", please?
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Yes, not a clue what NIE is.

Question: As these scammers are operating on a higher level to the usual West African garbage we all get, are we educating them on this LMH thread. which is highly exposed on the search engines?

MG
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pambon
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Post by pambon »

I think the NIE is the Spanish equivalent of one's National Insurance number/Codice Fiscale/Social Security number - correct me if I'm wrong.
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

http://www.euroresidentes.com/Property/faqs/nie.htm

You need an NIE number to own property, open a bank account, etc anything really.

''Numero de Identidad de Extranjeros which, translated, means "Identity Number for Foreigners".

Its an education in itself when you have to get one.
Your solicitor takes you[in our case to Alicante] where you queue all day with all your documentation.
When you do get to the front of the queue it only takes a matter of minutes.
We met people who had queued all day, only for something not to be right, and they had to turn up the next day and queue all day again.
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Question: As these scammers are operating on a higher level to the usual West African garbage we all get, are we educating them on this LMH thread. which is highly exposed on the search engines?
Yep, bit of a dilemma MG.
It could be moved to members only I spose, but its good that others might pick it up ,search engine wise, as a warning.
If you think I should delete any,or all, of my Spain Holiday post, let me know.
I expect Paolo will do whats best.
Paul Carmel
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Post by Paul Carmel »

This should be picked by Google, or else how will anyone find out! The more public the better.........
Cheers
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Well, it's a personal view, Big Sis, but the simple message is for us not to give out ID or passport details. The rest of the information is giving a potential scammer a complete A-Z guide of how to do it.

I guess that goes for Paolo's initial sticky and my posts as well.

MG
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Windy
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Post by Windy »

The UK manager (Barclays) said they no longer accept faxed requests for transfers.
I have never undstood why companies of all sorts will accept faxes but not emails as legal documents.

I had a ludicrous situation where I had to print out a pdf document and then scan it to fax it as the recipient wouldn't accept "electronic" communication as it could be faked.

He was a bit non-plussed when I asked if he'd like the fax to have a cover sheet with his own letterhead and with his signature on it (he had writen to me the week before), but still insisted that a fax was acceptable where an email attachment would not be.

NOBODY should accept a fax as proof of anything as they can be faked so easily - more easily than most documents as the low quality of reproduction means you could probably use sellotape to stick bits together and people might not notice :lol:

Faxes can be useful but not as proof of anything.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Mountain Goat wrote:the simple message is for us not to give out ID or passport details.
This is what it boils down to.

Although looking at my passport, I reckon in half an hour on Photoshop I could change my name to someone else's such that you would never notice on a fax or b/w scan.
Paolo
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