The Civil Guard has identified two people as alleged perpetrators of twelve fraud offenses related to vacation rentals in Lanzarote. The investigated are a 44-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman, who already had police records for similar events and have been placed at the disposal of the court.
The @ Lanzarote Team initiated the investigation following a complaint filed during the month of November at the Main Post of the Civil Guard of Tías. The complainant reported that he had made a payment of 1,500 euros as a reservation for a villa, and that from then on, "all communications had ceased" with the alleged owner.
In another of the cases, after making a payment of 1,800 euros, the alleged landlord arranged to meet the interested party at a particular address - supposedly the one of the property to be rented - to hand over the keys, and once at the place, the interested person observed how the property did not correspond to what was offered, in addition to the fact that the scammer never showed up.
In total, according to the complaints filed and clarified so far, the investigated would have seized 14,000 euros through this system, offering properties in Puerto del Carmen and Playa Honda on different platforms, and demanding advance payments as a reservation of between 250 and 1,800
Once the initial payment was made, all communications ceased without the lease being completed, with the Civil Guard verifying that these offered properties did not exist. The alleged perpetrators collected images and information from real properties at random from different platforms to use them later in the illicit act.
"It so happens that one of the victims detailed in the complaint that, in addition, the now investigated and alleged landlord bragged about his victims, telling him that he would never be located", the Civil Guard points out. "However, the @ Lanzarote Team carried out the police investigations that would lead to identifying the two people responsible for this scam, despite the strong effort they made in hiding their identity, as they impersonated other people and created different profiles on social networks", they add.
