Man caught out by sneaky Spanish scam that left him €80 out of pocket – and warns tourists not to fall for it too
A MAN caught out by a sneaky Spanish scam that left him €80 out of pocket has warned tourists not to fall for it too.
Peter Scales and his wife got a taxi to the airport from a rank outside his hotel in Mallorca earlier last week.
He said there was "something off" when a nervous-seeming female driver picked them up.
When the taxi arrived at Mallorca Airport, the driver asked for a card payment of just under €20.
In a letter to the , Peter wrote: "As the transaction was going through I noticed that she pulled the terminal away quickly without letting it properly register.
"We decided to try again on my wife’s Revolut card and the same thing happened again, so my wife tried again but it still was declined.
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"The final time I decided to pay with my Nationwide card, this time however I grabbed the terminal which stopped her pulling it away so fast.
"Surprise, surprise - it went through."
Peter and his wife only realised they had been scammed when they later checked their bank accounts - and saw that they were €80 out of pocket.
A worker at the airport helpdesk told the couple she could do nothing to help, and their bank would not issue a refund or cancel the transactions.
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Fuming tourist Peter said: "We can only assume that she had a card skimmer under the terminal or something like that.
Neither one of us are rich, and just the principle itself of someone out there conning holiday makers on there way home sickens me
"I recommend to tourists to pay in cash only to prevent fraud."
Gangs on TikTok are making "millions" by taking drivers' speeding points and fines for £250 a go, it has been reported.