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Issue 780
26 SEPT - 2 OCT 2014
67,000 phoney magazines cover up 15€ million fraud
SPANISH POLICE have busted an ‘ad-space scam’ that tricked thousands of small businesses into advertising in phoney magazines over the last 13 years. by Keith Nicol
Shani Ormiston
Shani hits a high note for Philippines Appeal ONE OF Torrevieja’s most talented singer-songwriters has quietly been raising money for the Philippines Typhoon Appeal. Read the full story on page 45.
A group of con artists printed 67,000 phoney magazines over 13 years using an old press at an industrial warehouse in Elche - part of an ad-space scam that tricked thousands of unsuspecting businesses. The magazines were purportedly published by police associations, the army, and non-profit groups working with the disabled, each publication said to have between 30 and 40 ad spaces each costing between 150€ and 400€. However, the magazines had no distribution other than to the clients who took out ads! EXPERT MOTIVATOR The alleged ring leader, a Valencian businessman, is described by police as an ‘expert motivator’ who implied that advertising in a Police publication could gain advantages should the clients ever find themselves in trouble - a classic scam popular in the USA more than thirty years ago.
Between 2001 and 2014, the ring extracted around 15€ million from more than 150,000 self-employed workers and small businesses across Spain. Content was plagiarized from official sources and by interviewing real police officers who were also convinced the magazines were real. The publications were full of National Police and Guardia Civil logos and badges and used the names of the Guardia Civil Radio Amateur Association (ACRAG) and the National Police’s Santo Ángel Radio Amateur Association (ARSA), which do exist but have no connection to the scam. 52 ARRESTS The National Police raid yielded 52 arrests (49 of them in Elche), 46,000€ in cash, four vehicles and computer files. One server was found behind a double ceiling inside an office. Investigators blocked 32 bank accounts and identified several front men, many of them elderly people in financial difficulties who were unaware of what they were signing. Continued on page 8
See page 66