Some actions you can take when you’ve been scammed or have suffered other bad experiences…
- Report it to the police. You can file a “denuncia” with any police department. Note that you will most likely need the police report for your bank, and potentially other occasions.
- Report the scam to your bank, and see if you can reverse any transfers you’ve made
- Make sure you save any information you might have on the scammers. This includes exporting any WhatsApp/Messenger/Telegram/etc chats, saving profile photos, phone numbers, email addresses, names, physical addresses, photos/images, videos, etc.
- Post about your experience in our Facebook and WhatsApp groups to avoid others falling for the same scam. We will spread the word even further, and we’ll help you as much as we can.
- Do NOT tell the people who scammed you about any actions you are taking. You probably want to scream at and threaten them, but you really want them to keep using the same phone numbers and other accounts, so the police (and we) have a chance to track them down.
- If you think there is a way to take legal action, you can start with the free legal advice service offered by the bar association of Barcelona: https://www.icab.es/es/servicios-a-la-ciudadania/justicia-gratuita/servicio-de-orientacion-juridica-puntos-soj/index.html
Also, slightly unrelated: should you have experienced any form of harassment or abuse from potential or current landlords or flatmates, please do not keep quiet! If you don’t want to go to the police, you can contact me or my female friends and fellow admins, Vanessa and Meghan, and we will help and assist you in any way we can!
