Classic scams reappear
The Gas Man Cometh
‘Oh no not again’ was the cry as readers told us that two of the most popular scams to be perpetrated here on the Costa Blanca appear to have resurfaced last week. The first is ‘The Gas Man Cometh’ scam very popular a few years ago but not so common in more recent times.
However we had one of our readers call us last week from Quesada to say he had received a letter from a company in his post box saying that an inspection was due and that a representative would call. This particular gentleman had had a bad experience a couple of years ago and had paid out a fairly large sum to have the tubing replaced on his heater on being told it was too long.
He checked with one of the two big suppliers of gas in Spain and they told him heaters can only be accredited by approved officials and the company that had contacted him were not. A representative of the company duly called on our reader who told him he was not interested.
Let’s be clear though about the safety and legal aspects of gas heaters and other gas appliances. There is no doubt they should be checked periodically and your local agents should be able to advise on that. They may also be able to give you a list of approved companies who can carry out the checks for you. In the event of any insurance claims surrounding it may be important that you can show that appliances have been checked but above all there is your own safety to consider. The gas companies may well want to call and check your installation occasionally which they are obliged to do by law but they will contact you first to make an appointment. In the case of the common gas heaters that many of us have then the so called scam usually centres on the replacement of the orange tube and in the past there have been extremely large amounts of money quoted by readers who have been stung in this operation.
There is a recommended replacement date printed in black on these tubes and replacements can be obtained very cheaply and they are easy to change. Just check for any leaks before switching the appliance back on. It is not the act of replacing the tubes or regulators that is wrong, merely the exorbitant charge that has sometimes been made and in some cases the unnecessary replacement of parts. If you need to have the work carried out you should ask for an estimate before the work is started. That way if you think it is excessive you can get another quote.

The Locksmith needs paying
This next scam is a true out and out ‘con’ and regular readers will have no difficulty in recalling this particular gentleman who has operated this confidence trick on and off for at least the past six or seven years in various places up and down the Costa Blanca.
I am referring to ‘The Locksmith scam’. I can almost here you all saying, “Oh Yes, I know this one,” and you would be right. This is our old friend who calls on your house in a very upset and disturbed state with a story to melt the heart of the most unsuspecting. He returned home with his wife and family to find his house had been burgled. He had to call the locksmith out to fix new locks (now you remember it don’t you?) and the locksmith needed paying but they did not have quite enough cash to pay him and their credit cards and other money had been stolen. They only needed a small amount of money (a plausible 33 euros in the latest case brought to our attention by a reader in Cabo Roig) but had to get the money to the locksmith by 4.00 pm. Many times in the past the unwitting victim has coughed up. In this latest case the couple who were approached did not have enough cash on them and the wife even went to the ‘hole in the wall’ to get some more while the confidence artist sat down with the husband to await the return of his money. He said he lived ‘over the back’ and would return the money the next day. When nothing happened our reader, beginning to suspect the worst, went round and discovered of course that the man did not live there at all. The description of the perpetrator is all too familiar, tall very thin, speaking English with an accent. On this occasion he said he was Swedish. Our reader felt rather foolish when he realised it was a con but as he said, ‘if you get to the stage where you don’t trust anybody then it’s a sad world if you can’t help people out’, and that is the sad thing about this ‘con’, it makes people very

We have received many calls and emails from delighted readers, confirming that they have received the necessary forms to be completed in order that they may get their EHIC Heath Cards sent to them from the UK. Delighted and perhaps a little surprised that the original promises by the authorities for a new system to be in place by the end of February has actually come to pass by the due date.
The changes apply to those people in receipt of a UK pension but who are resident over here in Spain and are receiving health care courtesy of registering their E121. Up until this year everyone in that situation had to get their EHIC heath cards, valid for emergency health treatment in EU countries, here in Spain which were valid for only one year. Last year, changes in the rules for covering EU nationals of one country but living and resident in another EU country were introduced. This means that UK pensioners, resident and registered in Spain for health care have to apply for their EHIC cards from the UK and not from Spain. The changes caused a certain amount of anxiety amongst readers who were finding that the Spanish authorities in some cases were not renewing their EHIC cards, even though there was no new system in place at that time to apply for them from the UK. Initially the word was that the new system would come into force at the end of February this year but that date was subsequently altered to May the 1st. Anyone whose Spanish issued EHIC runs out before that date should be able to get an extension to cover the period from the expiry date until the 1st of May when they are expected to have applied for and received their new EHIC card from the UK covering them for emergency treatment when they go back to the UK and other countries in the European Union. Your local Health centre should be able to advise you about this.
As mentioned earlier, people are already beginning to receive their application forms which come with an explanatory letter. I understand from at least one of our readers, that the forms are very straightforward to complete and according to information on the NHS website the forms are being sent out during the month of February so if you have not received one by the end of the month and believe you should have done so, then that might be the time to contact the authorities in the UK to find out what has happened.
The British government have said that provided the completed forms are returned by the end of March, the new cards should be in your hands by the 1st of May when the new regulations come into force. There is some further good news as well, it appears that the UK issued EHIC cards will be valid for five years, so no need to reapply on an annual basis as used to be necessary with time consuming trips to Orihuela.

Where there’s smoke there might not be by the end of this year.
Welcome to 2010, a brand New Year with no doubt plenty of opportunity for some nice juicy rumours and misunderstandings to do the rounds.
Over the Christmas period just before the end of last year, I came across a couple. The first, rather aptly as it turned out, was while I was sitting enjoying a quick café con leche on the terrace of a local bar. It was on one of the nicer mornings we have had over this mixed period for weather and I was taking in some winter sunshine when I could not help but overhear a conversation from a table close by. A couple of men had sat down and had an assortment of drinks in front of them.
I heard the click of a cigarette lighter and one of the four remarked, “You’ll not be able to do that next year you know.”
“What do you mean?” the other man queried.
“Smoke; next year they are going to impose a total smoking ban here in Spain,” said the first.
“I’ve not heard that,” said the smoker.
“Where did you see that?”
“Oh it’s common knowledge. They were all talking about it down in our local bar the other night. You’ll have to give up for a New Year’s resolution.”
“They’ll never impose that,” said the smoker,” the bars wouldn’t wear it.”
“They’ll have to if it’s a law, “said the first, “you just wait and see.”
I heard another click of the cigarette lighter. Obviously the stress of thinking about a total smoking ban was leading to him smoking even more cigarettes!
So what is the truth about the smoking laws here in Spain? Is there going to be a total ban this year?
The answer is that there almost certainly will be a tightening of the laws. It is widely tipped that there will be a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces but there is no indication of exactly when the new law will be brought in. If and when it is law what it means is that there will be no smoking inside bars and restaurants for a start. If they have terrace or outside areas though, you would be able to smoke there. The Minister for Health, Trinidad Jimenez, is determined to make progress with no smoking regulations in Spain and it seems that, despite cries from the hostelry trade that it will be the death of the industry, she has the backing of the majority of Spanish people who want to see tougher laws. The delays in implementing the law appear to be due to the minister trying to get as much support as possible for the bill. The Organisation of Consumers and Users (The OCU) has issued a statement in favour of change and quotes statistics that it says demonstrates there is insufficient observance of the law at the moment and that hostelry associations who claim their members have invested a lot of money in segregating areas for smokers and non smokers are exaggerating. They claim that in a study of 976 areas only 10% of small cafés have banned smoking and 37% of the restaurants that provided a separate area for non smokers did not meet the legal requirements.
Furthermore they say that 85% of restaurants have larger areas for smokers than they should have under the legislation; all in all not a very good record. Although there seems to be growing popular support for further smoking restrictions, other statistics were published towards the end of 2009 that showed an increase in smokers since the new laws have been introduced so it seems the message is not reaching all parts of the population. There is no going back on the anti smoking movement in Europe though with further restrictions likely as governments attempt to improve our health and reduce the costs to national health services from smoking related illness.
So if you have not given up already now might be the time to seriously tackle the problem. As a ‘reformed exsmoker’ myself I can thoroughly recommend a smokeless lifestyle.

Now on to something completely different – I have had a few calls and emails from readers worried about the cost of their electricity and aren’t we all. It is not so much the current charges, which are high enough, but the anticipated charges during this present year. It appears that there is a rumour circulating that if you do not sign up with Iberdrola as quickly as possible you might face an increase of 30% in the cost per unit of your electricity. While there is no doubt that electricity charges will go up this year there are no indications whatsoever they will increase by 30%. The figure is more likely to be of the order of 3%. As many of you will know or remember, the market for electricity has been opened up, at least in theory, to make it more competitive. This occurred last year and there are now two categories of supplier. The first are those companies whose prices will be decided by the government but who can offer up to a 2% discount on those prices. They are called in Spanish ‘comercializadora última recurso’ or companies of last resort in English which is not telling you very much. There are five of these. The second category is the companies operating in the ‘free market’ and on the piece of paper I received last year there were 24 of those. They are called ‘comercializadora mercado libre’ or free market companies which is much easier to understand. These companies will be setting their own tariffs and you are free to contact any of them and set up a contract. As we said at the time in CoastRider the problem is that these ‘free market’ companies are not falling over themselves to publish that information. You will notice that some companies will be operating in both sectors of the market which does not help clarify what is happening as far as the average consumer is concerned. The best answer is to go to your local Iberdrola showroom and ask for clarification if you are not sure what is going on.
You can also read up about Iberdrola and what the company is doing on their website which has a large section in English for those not confident with their Spanish.

I had a call from a lady recently concerned about identity theft. A friend of hers had been reading something about it but seemed confused as to what exactly it was and how you protected yourself against it. Her friend was worried abut shopping over the internet and how safe it was and she had heard rumours about phishing emails but was not sure what they were; were they dangerous she asked.
Identity theft is where other people use your personal details to open bank accounts, take out loans and apply for official documents such as passports and driving licenses.
Loans and other arrangements set up in this way can become the responsibility of the innocent victims. It is not the same as physically impersonating another person. The term was first used over 30 years ago but the crime, because that is what it is, has become much more commonplace over the last 15 years and with the rise of computer based data systems. Last year the cost to the UK alone was put at 1.2 billion pounds.
There are several ways you can help to protect yourself against someone using identity theft against you.
Identity theft is all about other people gaining information about you, therefore the first thing to do is to limit the opportunity for that happening by being careful about how you dispose of letters and correspondence with personal information in it. The best way is probably to burn it, the next best and perhaps more practical method is to shred it. Never keep credit cards together with a record of any pin or security numbers. Use different pin and security numbers for different cards. Always check your statements carefully and inform the bank if you notice any irregularities. If you lose or have stolen any cards, passports driving licenses or other documentation inform the issuing authorities and the police as soon as possible. Do not carry your credit cards around unnecessarily. Keep your personal documents in a locked drawer or even a safe.