Religious community in Lugo, Spain, receives scam calls impersonating Camillians leader seeking money

A caller who presented himself as José Carlos Bermejo, leader of the Camillians religious order, has been asking people for money to help the son of a sick man said to be dying in a hospital in Barcelona. The Guardia Civil, a victim of the attempted fraud, and Bermejo himself have confirmed that the requests are a scam.

VerificaRTVE spoke with a man from Lugo who belongs to a religious community based in that city. He said he received a call from someone “posing as José Carlos Bermejo,” who told him that a person was hospitalized in Barcelona, that the son had not appeared, and that the caller knew the community was in Lugo and asked whether they could make contact. Several days later, the Lugo resident met in person with a man who presented himself as the alleged son of the hospitalized patient and asked for money for his father. The resident said that “the information this person provided did not add up,” so he decided not to hand over any money. He did not report the incident to the security forces.

The Guardia Civil’s press department told VerificaRTVE that José Carlos Bermejo, the provincial superior of the Camillians in Spain, reported these scams at the Command of the Armed Institute in Madrid in mid-January. When VerificaRTVE contacted Bermejo by telephone, he said it was false that he was calling members and followers of his community to request money for a sick man hospitalized in Barcelona.

Bermejo told VerificaRTVE that he had reported the scam to the Guardia Civil and that the fraud involves three or four people. In his account, one person impersonates him and calls to persuade people to give money, another collects it, and a third claims to be a superior in Barcelona who confirms the story. He said the caller has contacted male and female religious convents in Córdoba, Granada, Valdepeñas, Puertollano and Lugo. According to Bermejo, the caller asks for help for the son of a sick man in a hospital of the order in Barcelona, saying the money is needed to travel to that city and sign consent for palliative sedation. The caller reportedly says the money will be returned to a bank account the victim is given, while the alleged son will collect the cash in hand because he is unemployed and the bank could take it away. Bermejo said people who fell for the scam had given between 400 and 3,500 euros and that it had happened about ten times.

On February 9, Bermejo issued a statement alerting the superiors of various religious communities to the scams impersonating him. He wrote that the scammers use “the language proper to our religious identity” and content about Saint Camillus taken from the internet. He also warned about messages sent through his social media accounts and personal blog, as well as through the network profiles of the Camillian religious in Spain. The specialized portal Religión Digital reported on the fraudulent practices and noted that the victims include “Claretian, Jesuit or Augustinian houses.”

VerificaRTVE noted that criminals often use telephone calls to impersonate a company, an organization, or a trusted person. This technique is known as vishing. The outlet has previously reported on vishing cases, including calls impersonating Unicaja to rob its customers and fake telephone communications posing as the company Iberdrola.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)