6 Tourist Scams in Gran Canaria

You are walking along the promenade in Playa del Inglés when a cheerful person in smart casual clothing approaches you with a scratch card. You scratch it and surprise — you have won a prize. To claim it, you just need to take a quick tour of a nearby resort. A taxi is already waiting. You are driven 30 kilometers to a luxury hotel complex where you are seated in a conference room. What follows is not a quick tour but an eight-hour high-pressure sales marathon. Multiple salespeople rotate in, creating artificial urgency with offers that are 'only available today.' The timeshare they push costs thousands of euros and turns out to be nearly impossible to use or resell. This scam is so well-documented that Spanish police raided timeshare showrooms in Gran Canaria and arrested over 60 people, including a British woman named Paula Beatson who allegedly helped organize a 4.3 million pound fraud that affected around 2,000 holidaymakers who paid up to 25,000 pounds each. The European Consumer Centre (EVZ) published a specific advisory about the scratch card timeshare scam in the Canary Islands, confirming that tiqueteros (ticket touts) use prize-winning scratch cards and promises of free gifts to snare victims. TripAdvisor's Playa del Inglés forum has a thread titled 'Beware the scratchcard scammers!' warning that there are no legitimate timeshare sellers operating on beaches or in bars, and common tricks include claiming to work for the government or tourist board.

You rent a car at Gran Canaria Airport for a week of exploring. You return it on time, topped up with fuel, in the same condition you received it. Two weeks later, back home, your credit card is charged 1,250 euros for damage you never caused. The repair invoice describes dents and scratches that were already on the car when you picked it up. The damage report matches almost identically to the original hold on your debit card. Gran Canaria Info, the island's leading English-language tourism website, published a specific article warning: 'Don't Let This Car Rental Scam Ruin Your Gran Canaria Holiday.' The article details how companies charge for imaginary damage long after customers have gone home, when challenging the charge is difficult. TripAdvisor's Gran Canaria forum includes a thread titled 'Anyone else ripped off by Europcar at Gran Canaria?' with similar accounts of post-return damage charges. Another TripAdvisor thread describes the ORLANDO car rental scam where tourists reported excessive charges. One particularly brazen case involved companies examining tires and mud guards and calling dust evidence of off-road driving. The Gran Canaria Beaches guide recommends going to the TripAdvisor forum and reading rental threads before booking, and sticking with reliable local companies like Autoreisen, Cicar, or the legitimate Orlando offices.

You are walking along the Playa del Inglés beachfront when a vendor approaches with a blanket laid out displaying designer sunglasses, handbags, and watches at incredibly low prices. Those Ray-Ban Wayfarers are only 15 euros. You buy two pairs. Within a week, the lenses crack and the frames bend — they are cheap Chinese knockoffs worth less than 2 euros each. Further down the promenade, an African woman approaches, takes your hand, ties a string bracelet on your wrist as a 'good luck charm,' and then demands 10 euros for it. Police in San Bartolomé de Tirajana detained 23 people in a single operation for selling counterfeit goods in Playa del Inglés, confiscating 80 large boxes of fake products valued at over 1 million euros. The Canaries Live guide to rip-offs confirms that street vendors sell fake designer goods and the palm-reading bracelet scam is common on beach walkways. Gran Canaria Info's scam guide notes that cheap sunglasses from street vendors are acceptable if you haggle appropriately and do not expect quality, but warns against spending substantial money thinking they are genuine designer brands. The guide also warns about shops in resort areas like Puerto Rico shopping center selling questionable electronics to tourists.

You find a stunning beachfront apartment in Maspalomas on a rental portal at an incredible price. The listing has professional photos, detailed descriptions, and seems completely legitimate. You wire the deposit — typically 500-1,500 euros — to the provided bank account. When you arrive in Gran Canaria, the apartment does not exist. The listing was fake, the photos were stolen from a real estate website, and the person you communicated with has disappeared with your money. Gran Canaria Info's scam guide warns that scammers create adverts on popular rental portals or post on Facebook Groups aimed at remote workers, take a reservation deposit, remove the advert, and disappear. The Canaries Live guide to Canary Islands rip-offs confirms that fake rental listings are a growing problem, particularly on social media groups where there is no payment protection. The scheme is most common during peak season when desperation for affordable accommodation increases. Some scammers go further — they rent a real property for a week, photograph it, then create fake listings using those photos for the entire year.

You sit down at a harbor-front restaurant in Puerto de Mogán and order fish of the day and a carafe of house wine. The menu looks reasonable. When the bill arrives, you discover the fish was priced per 100 grams rather than per portion, your carafe of wine was actually charged as individual glasses, and a service charge and bread basket fee have been added that were not on the menu. Your 25-euro dinner has become 65 euros. The Hotels.com guide to Canary Islands mistakes warns tourists about dining in popular tourist areas where prices are substantially higher than off-the-beaten-path restaurants. The Canaries Live guide to rip-offs specifically mentions restaurant pricing tricks in resort areas, where menus displayed outside may differ from the bill. Gran Canaria Info recommends eating where locals eat rather than at beachfront tourist establishments, and checking Spanish-language review sites rather than just English tourist reviews for honest pricing assessments.

You book a whale-watching excursion from a kiosk in Playa del Inglés for 40 euros per person — significantly cheaper than the 60 euros your hotel concierge quoted. The day of the trip, the bus arrives late, you are driven to a different port than promised, and the boat is packed with twice the advertised number of passengers. The trip lasts two hours instead of four, you spot no whales, and when you try to complain, the kiosk has changed its name or closed entirely. Gran Canaria Info identifies shady excursion booking agents as one of the five major scams on the island, noting that unlicensed operators offer trips at bargain prices with poor delivery, overcrowded boats, and no accountability. The Fuerteventura Airport's guide to avoiding Canary Islands scams warns that excursion sellers approach tourists in bars and beaches with deals that are 'only for today,' and that legitimate operators never need to sell through aggressive street recruitment. TripAdvisor's Gran Canaria forum has numerous reports of excursion disappointments, with common complaints including cancelled trips with no refund, boats that do not match descriptions, and trips shorter than advertised.