SCAM ALERT: Holiday homes in Sitges, Catalonia


It has come to our attention that a fraud has been committed on Spain-holiday.com, claiming a number of victims. The properties in question were published by a company - PAN EUROPEAN TRADING S.L, also known as ‘Pan Properties’, with a contact name of Robert Wilkinson. They are located in Sitges, Catalonia. 

 To date we are aware that several customers have paid the holding deposit and others the full cost of the rental, losing up to 8000 € through Paypal payments and bank transfers. We regret this situation has occurred.  

At this point we are collaborating with the police to provide information on both the company and victims and with Paypal’s fraud department regarding payments made through their system. We have managed to identify two bank accounts held by Pan Properties, both of which have been subsequently frozen. The police are also investigating a third possible bank account, which will be closed, to ensure no further money can be extracted.  

We are working with customers who have been affected by this scam, collating a thorough case history, which we hope will help prevent this fraudster from doing the same again, and ultimately put him behind bars. We are committed to helping everyone who has fallen victim to this scam, in every possible way we can. If you have been in contact with Pan Properties then we recommend that you get in touch with us as soon as possible and you do not pay any money to them. 

We would like to state that Spain-holiday.com carries out stringent security checks for all new home owners. We are constantly upgrading our security to keep in-line with the increasing advancement in online fraud. Unfortunately, on this occasion our portal fell victim to this clever cheat.  

To publish a rental home on our portal requires that the owner supply a series of documentation to prove the ownership of a home, such as the owner passport and utility bills. On this occasion Robert Wilkinson signed up to our website presenting, what we understand to be, a stolen passport and a fake utility bill and paid for this advertisement via a verified PayPal account. Furthermore he operated a website run under a Spanish registered S.L. company. 

The organisation of this scam was particularly clever in that the properties were published last October, but no bookings were taken until July 2013; giving the fraudster over eight months to collect bookings and deposits, before we became aware of the situation.  

To reiterate: if you have contacted a property owner on Spain-holiday.com with contact details of Pan Properties or Robert Wilkinson, we ask that you do not proceed with any booking or deposit payment and you contact us immediately.  

We want to take the opportunity to offer our condolences to anyone who has been affected by this situation, we are working around the clock to help the police catch this person.  

We also assert that this is an isolated situation. Spain-holiday.com works with geniune homeowners and property management companies to offer the best holiday accommodation in Spain. We are upset and angry that this type of scam has taken place on our portal, which tarnishes not only the reputation of the online holiday booking industry, but also the thousands of genuine holiday rental owners out there, who we work with satisfactorily year-in, year-out.   

If you have been affected by this scam please get in touch at : support@spain-holiday.com or +34 952 204 435/+44 (0)2033 847 066 

Claus Sorensen
CEO
Spain-holiday.com