Citibox accept mail at their UK Address and Courier it weekly to Spain via FedEx. Oh dear. On Friday I got a telephone call from a British Police Detective asking about one of our customers using our UK Address in Spain. Only the previous day, a gentleman had travelled 200 miles or so from Cumbria to Birmingham to ask for his money back. The Detective had been called in by a lady who had suffered similar loss. All the post going to that particular Citibox holder is being forwarded to the UK CID …. BUT, let me please leave this message for anyone who wishes to learn the lesson.
There are unscrupulous companies and individuals working from Spain and they may be using the UK Address of either Citibox or even one of our competitors. At the time that they sign up with us, we have no idea whether a customer is honest or not so we take every possible precaution in case they are the latter. I have today sent the passport copies of one of our box holders to the West Midlands police force who are impounding, for the time being, any mail sent to Bond St. for the name of that particular customer (don´t worry, everyone else’s mail will come through as usual!). I have also found out that this particular company has another trading name with another UK accommodation address in Spain and I have informed the operators of that address.
We are told that this company is taking money from individuals in the UK and promising in return to sell their timeshare in Spain or something similar. After parting with the cash, the individuals never hear again from the company. We are told that it is around €1,500 a time or more.
Now, this may or may not be true. But Citibox does not want to be associated in any way with any form of fraudulent activity so we are asking you, the public, to alert us as soon as possible to any suspicions you may have and we will do our utmost, together with the relevant authorities in Spain and the UK to stamp out any illegal activity.
If there is a perfectly good explanation forthcoming from our customer, I will publish it on this blog. If there is not, I will name and shame. However, please all be aware of the following:
Except for Turners of Bond Street, run by my brother in law, Peter Turner, who produces the best smoked and green bacon in the Midlands, all deliveries to a box number or to “Banus 732″ are merely being re-routed to a Citibox account in Spain. This is, if you like, a virtual address in the UK from which, once a week, all the mail is sent down to Spain by FedEx. There is another address which has a similar method of diverting mail to Spain and that is a PO Box 348 at Gatwick Airport which is nothing to do with Citibox but operated by a rival organisation.
I do ask everyone to use caution when dealing with companies and individuals based in Spain that fail to give out a physical location in Spain and only use virtual office addresses in the UK. Citibox only use actual addresses where people can visit us.
I will keep you all updated with the response of the particular company concerned. There are many honest accountants, financial advisers and lawyers to whom Citibox would be delighted to recommend you but we don´t take advertising on our web site and we will only recommend from personal experience. Drop us an email.
The update to this fraudulent scam is here Timeshare Fraudsters Exposed
