The Modus Operandi used by the alleged scammers is a supposedly legal shortcut to obtain a driving license: “You won’t have to pass any theoretical or practical exams,” promises a WhatsApp message. Afterwards, money is requested, and sometimes the requirement is that the applicant already knows how to drive.
The Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) warns that this fraudulent attempt is proliferating on numerous websites, where a driver’s license is sold with the appearance of legality, always without the need for a theoretical or practical test. “This is completely impossible,” said a spokesperson for the DGT.
On the contrary, in Spain, it is always necessary to pass an exam to obtain a driver’s license, unless it has already been obtained in the European Union or the European Economic Area (Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein). Non-EU foreigners can replace their license with a Spanish one if they are citizens of countries with which there is an agreement for exchange.
Driver’s License: Phantom Websites
The websites analyzed by the Central Investigation and Analysis Group of the Traffic Division of the Civil Guard offer the obtainment of a category B license for around 850 euros.
These organized groups almost always resort to the same scam procedure. They advertise on the internet to offer the license, and they use only a phone number as the means of contact.
Through mobile phones, always via instant messaging, they request the interested party to send their complete information (name, surname, ID number, and date of birth), as well as a photograph of the applicant and a signature.
The next step, supposedly after verifying the authenticity of the data, is to send a bank account number to which the applicant must make the payment. As soon as the transfer is made, the scammers disappear.
The perpetrators of this type of fraud – as explained by the DGT – use temporary websites and “Spanish phone numbers of non-existent holders.” They constantly change them to avoid leaving a trace, and these are numbers that do not allow receiving calls, only data.
Traffic clarifies that this fraud attempt “is usually directed at migrants from third countries, whom they make believe that it is possible to obtain a driver’s license without taking any previous exams.”
