This is how Spanish scammers lure Dutch tourists into a trap | Car

Now that the European exodus to the south has really started, scammers are also becoming active again. In Spain they use a cunning technique to rob tourists of their valuables. They do this, among other things, by making a small cut in one of your tires, so that it slowly starts to deflate. They then follow you until you pull the car over to the side of the road to view the flat tire, according to a press release from the United States. Spanish Autopista.

When you’re annoyed at the side of the road and don’t know what you can do best, someone apparently happens to drive by and offer to help you change the tire. While your attention is distracted by this person, one or more accomplices empty your car. Then the ‘helper’ runs away and they leave you with a flat tire and without a mobile phone, laptop, handbag and other items that they can snatch with them.

Spanish police have released images to warn tourists. The camera images show how an unsuspecting Dutch Porsche driver is lured into a trap at a toll booth. While the Porsche driver is distracted by making a payment transaction, a criminal gets out of the car behind it and punctures one of the Porsche’s tires.

According to the Mossos d’Esquadra – the Catalan police – it is a well-known scam trick and you must therefore be very alert when you are forced to stop after a flat tire. In any case, make sure that you lock your car and that someone stays close to the valuables in the car. This technique is also used in other Southern European countries to rob unsuspecting drivers.

Another trick that has already been warned about is popularly known as the ‘Irish scam trick’. In doing so, holidaymakers are approached in highway parking lots by a haggard-looking man or woman, who explains in perfect English that he or she and her family have just been stripped naked by some unscrupulous thieves. As a result, they cannot return to their own country and so they ask if you can lend them money. Naturally, the victims never get the borrowed money back.

Another technique is that thieves ask if you want to make a payment with debit or credit card for them because they only have cash themselves and their credit card is not accepted. Never accept such a transaction as you will be paid with fake banknotes.

To prevent targeted burglaries, according to the police, it is also necessary to completely switch off laptops, smartphones, tablets and the like while parking the car, for example in a parking lot on the way. Because this equipment is often on standby, WiFi and Bluetooth detectors allow thieves to see exactly which car windows they need to tap.

Watch the video of the tires being punctured in the tweet below:

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