Tag: “tablet scam”

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Foundation Investigated for Alleged Mismanagement of Public Funds Meant for Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

The 7th Investigative Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has opened a preliminary investigation into the Social Response Foundation Siglo XXI and four of its directors. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Las Palmas filed a complaint against them, alleging crimes that could include forgery of commercial documents, mismanagement, and embezzlement of public funds. The investigation aims to determine whether this nonprofit organisation, and its officials, could have misused public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied migrant minors, during the migration crisis of 2020 that was precipitated by the pandemic confinement on the islands, leading to a build up of arrivals having to be assessed and cared for by the Canary Islands Regional Government, using hotels left empty due to the lack of tourism. The estimated amount involved in the alleged misuse stands at around €12.5 million between 2020 and 2022 on Gran Canaria alone.

 

Canary Islands Expect Rain and Potential Storm Weather Next Week

The Canary Islands are preparing for a change in the weather next week, as a significant increase in cloud is expected bringing higher probability of rain. The effects of a powerful storm forming in the Atlantic Ocean are likely to extend to the Canary Islands as well as neighbouring Madeira and The Azores.

 

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 2-4 June 2023

June is here and that means that summer is just around the corner. The Patron Saints’ festivities in honour of San Juan de Bautista and San Antonio de Padua are just getting started on Gran Canaria, and in Pueblo de Mogán the main Romería pilgrimage for San Antonio El Chico is this first Saturday of June, as well as the start of the build up to those in Arucas, Santa Brígida and Moya. This weekend also brings the biggest outlet fair shopping experience back to INFECAR and a collectables fair in Gáldar.
OPERATION KILO is this weekend, at all participating supermarkets, asking you to add a few non-perishable food items to the Food Bank collection boxes to help families in need.

Vox Enters Canarian Politics, Stage Right: Anti-Migrant, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Green, Anti-Autonomy, Anti-LGBT, Anti-Multiculturalism, Pro-Franco politics find a foothold on The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands were unable to avoid the rise of the far right on Sunday, unlike in 2019, writes Natalia G. Vargas in Canarias Ahora. Vox, which previously had no representation on the islands, managed to make its presence felt in several municipalities and councils this May 28. They also secured seats in the Canary Islands’ regional parliament, securing four deputies. “Defending what is ours, our own, and fighting against insecurity” were the slogans that underpinned Vox’s campaign in The Canary Islands, along with “family, employment, and freedom.” This rhetoric, coupled with an electoral program that was repeated across all local elections in Spain, proved sufficient. Dozens of cities and towns on the islands welcomed their first far right candidates of the modern democratic era into Canarian politics, with urban areas serving as their main strongholds.

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

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Two more electronics store employees in Puerto Rico detained for fraud

The Civil Guard have detained two electronics store emlpoyess in the southern tourist town of Puerto Rico (Mogán, a 27 year old with the initials TS and a 29 year old with the initials GA, both of foreign nationality and with prior police records for similar crimes, as alleged perpetrators of two so-called “tablet scam” customer frauds.
The Police Command in Las Palmas reports that the investigation began on February 17 when a Scandinavian tourist complained at Gran Canaria airport that, a few minutes before taking his flight back to Sweden, he had realised that he had been fraudulently charged €1,980 by a Puerto Rico merchant.
The complainant informed the Guardia Civil that, just one day before returning to his country, he had purchased a tablet device at a very low price – €70 euros – from a certain store and that, later, he was offered access to a wifi portal, for which he agreed to pay €5 per month, but in fact he was charged almost €2,000 without his authorisation.
The original €70 was made with his debit card, however the alleged perpetrators of the scam convinced the victim that the payment of 5 euros for access to the Wi-Fi portal had to be made via a credit card.
Once the payment was made with the credit card, which as a rule is usually with a PIN code, the authors used confiscation techniques with the victim, such as offering him a drink, other souvenirs or an electronic product of unknown brand for free, while they fraudulently charged the unauthorised excess amount.
The investigation determined the exact shop where the alleged crime took place and identified the owner and economic beneficiary of the transaction, initials TS, conducting an inspection of the establishment and leading to the arrest of its owner once the police procedures were completed.
The second investigation began just ten days later, on February 27, when an English tourist returned from his country solely to report and denounce an alleged crime of fraud committed against him between February 15 – when he bought a tablet – and the 18, the date on which he returned to the store to pick up the device in the town of Puerto Rico, which had supposedly needed to be updated after he had chosen to purchase.
At the store, after buying the product, at what he thought was a greatly reduced price, he then wisely checked his bank account to discover that an amount of €2,700 had been charged to his account, without his consent, ostensibly for the installation of software to change the language of the device, for which he had actually only agree to pay €5.
The Guardia Civil, arrested GA as the alleged perpetrator of this scam, highlighting that the circumstances of this second crime differed from the first in that the sale was made in a different trade to the fraudulent charges.
The two detainees have been placed at the disposition of the corresponding courts, in the nearby town of Maspalomas.

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