I have just heard that an owner on our urbanisation has been caught by a scam which is getting more prevalent and everyone needs to be aware of it.

The owner has said that in the Torrevieja area she was stopped by a very well dressed and presented man who asked her if she was Italian. She told him she was not but spoke Italian. She asked him what he wanted and he said he had been robbed and needed money to get back to Italy and he was a rep for a company.

He was very convincing and asked if she could help him in any way even if it was only a small amount of money and she handed some over, because she felt sorry for him.

The same thing happened to my wife and me on our journey from Spain to the UK, when an Irishman started talking to us in a French rest area, told us he had been robbed while at the Barcelona football ground and he was trying to get back to Ireland. He said he had no money and promised to transfer the money back to us when he got back to Britain. I took his car registration number, his passport number, name and telephone number. Like fools we gave him some money but he never returned the money. I sent all the details to Interpol through the UK police but nothing resulted.

This is a scam which is Europe wide and the advice is no matter how convincing the person is and how much they plead, don’t be fooled. If anyone is that desperate they can always go to the police or to the consulate or Embassy.