FREE!
costa calida EDITION costa calida
Your English Newspaper
roundtownnews.com
Issue 72
14 - 20 march 3-9 Jan 2014
Slick ‘City’ scam alarm by Jack Troughton
Ruth Lorenzo
Ruth Lorenzo records her song for Eurovision Murcia native Ruth Lorenzo has travelled to Madrid to record her presentation for Eurovision 2014. Possibly best known for coming fifth in the fifth series of the British TV talent show The X Factor, she is now Spain’s choice to represent Spain at Eurovision 2014. Read the full story on page 19.
EXPERIENCED INVESTOR Frank Roberts is warning people of a “sophisticated” fraud gang who swindled him out of a fortune in an elaborate financial sting. The businessman – who quit the rat race for a new life in Spain with his family – believed he was investing for long term security with a highly reputable City of London finance house. However, he was dealing with a ghost ‘mirror’ fraudulent company, complete with copied genuine paperwork and the stolen identities of real brokers and fund managers, including their trading registration numbers. Speaking at his home in Ontinyent, he said British and Spanish police were now hunting criminals that apparently have links to Malaga after the scam was discovered last week.
And the married father-of-three told RTN: “We are down many tens of thousands of pounds. What money we have has to last us – it is very painful when it goes missing.” Ironically, as the con was unearthed, Spanish and UK police were making over 110 arrests on a £15 million international shares scam that defrauded around 1,000 people. A so-called ‘boiler-room’ fraud involves selling worthless or non-existent shares. Conmen target people who have already invested in the stock market and bombard them with a high-pressure sales pitch offering high returns. STING It is thought such stings cost victims, many of them elderly, more than £240 million a year. Continued on page 8
See page 62