Tenerife property fraud may be prevented. Know how is all that counts.

In some rare cases, we can't prevent Tenerife property fraud. But, at least we may try to avoid unnecessary costs and losses and aggravation caused by it.

I would like to tell you about a fraudulent incident in Puerto Cruz on Tenerife Island.

This particular case is related to holiday clubs for people owning time share. They had made headlines in the media for quite a while, as they never gave the customers what they had promised.

Something which happened in my neighborhood

It might have been a couple of years ago, when a young woman in the building where I have an apartment in Tenerife was called over from overseas to work for such a holiday club.

She was boosting that they got her over because she was a top sales woman. She rubbed it in with me that they paid her very, very well. Today, I am sure that she was involved in Tenerife property fraud. Nobody in Tenerife would pay such high wages to anybody, unless there was a catch.

Also, the friends she associated with did not throw a good light on her character.

In June 2007 the young woman suddenly moved out of my building.

At about the same time I witnessed an ugly scene when I was looking for that holiday club on Avenida Generalisimo in Puerto de la Cruz because a friend wanted to know where it was.

Fraud in Puerto de la Cruz

I found the place. A Spanish man was sitting in front of the office in the road by the former club entrance. A big banner above the office entrance spelled the words fraud in Puerto de la Cruz in large letters in Spanish.

Seeing this I, of course, didn't associate it straight away with Tenerife property fraud. The man only spoke Spanish.

He told me that management of the holiday club had disappeared. He was one of several employees it owed far more than a month's wages.

He held a letter in his hands. He collected signatures for it.

Those signatures were later to be handed in at the Mayor's office.

Holiday club time share scam published by BBC

Also in June, the BBC in the UK had talked about time share holiday club fraud. (Time Share was very much involved in Tenerife property fraud, not long ago.)

People had been promised better time share conditions when joining clubs. Club members had to pay up to £15,000 in membership fees. I don't have any idea if this was for a whole year. Anyway, the amount sounds horrendous. Obviously, people had been very badly disappointed. That included set promised times for time share holidays as well as quality. Hence, that would make it Tenerife property fraud, as well.

I can't say for sure that the said club in Puerto de la Cruz in Avenida Generalisimo was involved in such a time share club scam. But, I am very much inclined to think so, now.

I knew that it was very different from Club Mediterrané. That I learned from the woman that had worked there. Also, I found it so strange that she didn't want to answer all my questions.
Club Med would not get mixed up with Tenerife property fraud.

An interesting case that is, perhaps, indirectly involved with Tenerife property fraud regarding time share

I had started to work for a 'telesales' company which is a firm that usually sells services by telephone. It was near Puerto de la Cruz in the North of Tenerife, a few years ago. Many services are not allowed to be sold by telephone in Germany, any more. Hence, firms that want to sell the same service come to Tenerife.

I left the job after 3 days. I simply couldn't see much success with what I had to sell.

A friend of mine had worked for the same people before.

At that time, my friend had to offer a free holiday hotel stay in Tenerife as a bonus that came with the service sold by telephone. If I am not mistaken flight and food were not included in the sales' gift that the tourists received.

The bonus meant 14 days of free holiday in a hotel that I know near Santa Ursula. The German tourists who had earned the gift were bombarded with time share meetings during their so called free time on the island. By the way, none of them bought any Tenerife timeshare property in the end.

My friend quit that job. She couldn't stand the, bitter complaints by the tourists any longer.

A slightly different service was promoted without the hidden timeshare talks, when I joined. But, then, who knows? I was only there for 2 or 3 days.

Time share in Tenerife has a bad name after all that has happened. A lenient Spanish law didn't help either. a It shouldn't be like that because the basic idea of it is a good one. Here, my story how I experienced time share which was absolutely unique.

Basic important points to help you not to be harmed by real estate fraud

1. Knowing some of the Tenerife property fraud tricks...
2. Opening our mind to property fraud in other countries... If it hasn't happened in Tenerife before it may occur tomorrow.
3. Registration of purchased real estate property with Oficina de Registro de Propriedad, ASAP...
4. Of course, always trusting also our instincts...
5. First of all, you want to see the buyer face to face. He must come see you and not the other way around
6. Never accept a cashier's cheque as a deposit mailed to you as a deposit mailed to you.Usually, some so called accountant will follow up on it saying that you may please return some surplus sent to you by mistake. The mom you have done that the initial check bounces and you have lost what has been returned.
7. Never use establishments like Western Union or Moneygram, eitherDon't get tricked into deals that seem to involve money washing. Cash should be verified at a bank before you sign over property or, even a promise to sell.
8. Too true that this may not be as easy as it sounds...At best have money transfer handled by a lawyer.
9. Many of them can arrange for better foreign exchange as well for and on your behalf.

cashier's check

Precautions when selling property privately in Spain to avoid property fraud

A well known case of real estate fraud

Please, read up on an example of Tenerife property fraud...

fraud that happened a while ago

By the way, property fraud in Tenerife is not something that estate agents knowingly would get mixed up with. And, most estate agents in Tenerife are doing their job well.

Here, however, we must not forget that it's not a real estate agent's business to look into all sorts of details when you want to buy.

Banks in Tenerife investigate very much before granting a mortgage. Credit worthiness is not all that the Spanish banks want to know. A friend of mine told me the same after he applied for a mortgage.

Interesting news seen in NY Times

NY Times reported in December 2007 on rising property mortgage fraud in US which I summed up for you:

In a nutshell on mortgage fraud in US which is of course common all over the world

Mortgage fraud is 8 times as much in US now compared to 2002, as per nytimes.com.

Bank filed reports in America reveal 47,717 cases of mortgage fraud in US.

All kinds of false statements in mortgage applications are common such as on collateral and income.

There are special mortgages

that look like miracles because they may provide cash up front for the value of property. A few known cases in the USA are known which let us suspect that not all such deals might be totally ethical, especially, as there are usually the elderly involved.

Links related to home ownership where not all topics are necessarily related to Tenerife property fraud

This looks like a safe option for mortgages in Tenerife you could apply for.

The following incidence about a property with strings attached that was not outright fraud but wasn't far from it.

Fraud in Tenerife South

In the summer of 2015 German friends of mine were talking about excessive "never ending" documentation, translation and other service charges in regard to a property sale. The costs are said to have happened at a real estate agent in Tenerife South. The agents were hard to blame a reason why I will not name them but the seller behaved criminally.  Please, do yourself a favor and talk to another agent, Gestor or to a lawyer if charges occur that make you suspicious.  It was also said this type of crime reminded Nigerian scams. I don't agree with that. 

How property should be bought in Tenerife, safely.

From Tenerife property fraud back to real estate in Tenerife with many helpful links on how safely buy and sell property on the biggest of all Canary Islands.

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