The Guardia Civil in La Victoria de Acentejo in the north of Tenerife, have arrested two people and are investigating another four for fraudulent hotel and luxury villa bookings that don’t exist in the south of the island. Operation Cancun was launched after complaints from people that had arrived on the island for holidays and found that they had nowhere to stay.
In an official press release, the Guardia Civil said that they received several complaints from victims who explained how they had been offered accommodation in luxury hotels and villas, located mainly in the Costa Adeje area of Tenerife, at prices much lower than those offered by the hotels themselves or different official websites offering these properties.
When they saw the offers online, the conversation for the reservation was all made via Whatsapp with the supposed manager of the travel agency, who indicated that in order to make the reservation they had to pay the entire amount through Bizum, to take advantage of the promotional price.
However, when the victims arrived at the hotel complex or the villa, they then found out that they were the victims of a scam as they didn’t any reservation in their name at the places in question.
Both the main leader of the organization, and the rest of the members working with him, are attributed with 25 crimes of fraud to the value of 15,000 euros. The police are asking anyone else who may have been the victim of this type of scam to come forward, as they believe there are many more victims out there who have not reported it.
