Is a listing without a registration number automatically a fraud?

No. But in the Canaries the number is required by article 8.6 of law 6/2025. If it is missing, the offer does not meet the rules.

How do I check a Canary registration number?

In the open dataset of the Registro General Turístico: on 16 September 2026 it listed 72,389 holiday lets, 10,911 of them on Lanzarote.

As an owner, do I still need the national NRUA number?

The articles that imposed it have been struck down. The number for the listing is the one from the Canary tourism register.

I have already transferred the money. What now?

Contact the bank at once, keep the evidence and file a report, as the Guardia Civil has advised since March 2026. Advice on 017.

Can an owner have someone else's account taken down?

He can report it for impersonation and object to the photographs on copyright grounds. The decision rests with the platform.

LANZAROTE · CONSUMER

800 euros a night for other people's houses: how to spot a fake villa listing

An owner on Lanzarote learned from a friend that his holiday villa was being offered for rent on TikTok — by someone who does not own it. The photographs came from his own Booking listing and the price was below his. The same account carried around thirty more houses, at up to 800 euros a night. The Guardia Civil told him that as long as nobody has transferred money, there is little to investigate.

17 September 2026 · By Julia Roca Bethencourt · 5 min. · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief

Puerto del Carmen on Lanzarote (illustrative)

Photo: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0 (illustrative image).

The figures and where they come from

La Voz de Lanzarote, 17 September 2026: one account advertised about thirty houses on Lanzarote and the Canaries, had more than 7,300 followers, videos reaching 70,000 views and prices up to 800 euros a night.
Guardia Civil, 10 March 2026: a rise in holiday-rental fraud through social media, above all TikTok — stolen photographs, low prices, payment by bank transfer or Bizum.
Guardia Civil Lanzarote, 17 July 2026 (Crónicas de Lanzarote): five people under investigation and around 20,000 euros taken from a holiday-rental company.
Ministry of the Interior, 10 July 2026: 488,426 cyber offences were recorded in Spain in 2025, 19.8 per cent of all crime, of which 429,677 were computer fraud.
Canary Islands government, open data, 16 September 2026: 72,389 registered holiday lets, 10,911 of them on Lanzarote.

What happened on Lanzarote

Salvador García lets a holiday villa on Lanzarote. A little over a week ago a friend told him his house was being advertised on TikTok; García had never posted anything there. Following the link, he found an account using his own Booking photographs and quoting a lower price than his. The videos did not show the names of the houses, and in some cases the addresses had been altered.

García wrote to the account as an interested customer and asked about his own house. "Le pregunté por dos fechas que estaban ocupadas y me dijo que estaban disponibles" — he named two dates that were already booked and was offered them as free. A rental contract followed that was visibly a template from the internet, together with a request to pay into a bank account before the other side signed. García did not pay and filed a report. Who is behind the account is not established; there is no charge, and the presumption of innocence applies.

Why the report leads nowhere for now

The Guardia Civil told him the report was unlikely to bear fruit: "al no haber sido estafado económicamente, por el momento no hay delito" — as long as nobody has suffered financial loss, there is for the moment no offence. The name and ID number on the draft contract may in addition be invented. That is the uncomfortable side of prevention: whoever grows suspicious in time suffers no loss, and so has no case. Protection lies not at the end, with the police, but at the start, with the booking.

Not an isolated case — but three different cases

On 10 March 2026 the Guardia Civil warned of rising fraud in holiday rentals advertised on social media and named TikTok: stolen photographs, luxury properties at conspicuously low prices, pressure from supposed rival bookers, payment by bank transfer or Bizum. La Voz de Fuerteventura and Diario de Avisos reported it.

Two further Lanzarote cases have to be kept apart from that. On 17 July 2026 the Guardia Civil said its Equipo Arroba had broken up a network that took some 20,000 euros from a holiday-rental company; five people are under investigation. There the victim was the company, not the traveller: a supposed intermediary brought in bookings using false customer details and stolen card data (Crónicas de Lanzarote). And on 14 January 2023 the same paper reported a case of "web spoofing" in which a victim was lured to a cloned copy of a rental platform and transferred 843 euros.

The registration number, and how to check it

In the Canaries every listing must carry a registration number. Under article 8.6 of Canary law 6/2025 the entry "contendrá necesariamente un número de registro", to be shown in any advertisement, including on digital platforms. The national NRUA number no longer serves as proof: in 2026 the Supreme Court struck down articles 5, 8, 9 and 10 of Real Decreto 1312/2024.

Checking takes no official visit. The Canary government publishes the registered holiday lets as an open dataset: on 16 September 2026 it held 72,389 entries, 10,911 of them on Lanzarote, each with number, municipality, address and bed count; on Lanzarote every number begins "VV-35-". Anyone given a number can look up whether it exists and whether the municipality and address fit the offer. A listing with no number is no proof of fraud, but it does not meet the rules — reason enough not to pay.

What an owner can do — and what not

TikTok lists impersonation in its guidelines as a violation and takes reports from the profile itself: open the profile, more options, report, report account, choose a reason. For stolen photographs there is additionally the copyright route. Both are platform decisions rather than legal remedies, and they can take time while another account is already online.

Officially, little remains, and that is part of the story. Anyone who has lost money can file electronically: fraud by digital means is one of the few matters accepted online, around the clock and without later confirmation at a barracks. Anyone who, like García, has suffered no loss can pass information through the Guardia Civil contact form on telematic crime, which the force itself says has purely informational effect. This text is information, not legal advice.

Before paying, in this order: find the registration number in the listing and look it up in the Canary tourism register's open dataset, with municipality and address; run the photographs through a reverse image search against the big booking portals; ask for the exact name of the house, because faked videos usually leave it out; ask the owner to block your dates on the official platform, which is what Salvador García recommends in La Voz de Lanzarote; and book and pay where a booking can afterwards be cancelled and disputed. Free advice in Spain: Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad, 017, WhatsApp 900 116 117, Telegram @INCIBE017.

For a holiday let you have not verified, never pay by bank transfer or Bizum into a private account. That demand for payment is exactly what the Guardia Civil names as the mark of the scam in its warning of 10 March 2026. Unlike a booking through a regulated platform, a completed transfer is in practice unrecoverable, and a signed contract proves nothing when the name and ID number on it may be invented.

FAQ

Is a listing without a registration number automatically a fraud?: No. But in the Canaries the number is required by article 8.6 of law 6/2025. If it is missing, the offer does not meet the rules.
How do I check a Canary registration number?: In the open dataset of the Registro General Turístico: on 16 September 2026 it listed 72,389 holiday lets, 10,911 of them on Lanzarote.
As an owner, do I still need the national NRUA number?: The articles that imposed it have been struck down. The number for the listing is the one from the Canary tourism register.
I have already transferred the money. What now?: Contact the bank at once, keep the evidence and file a report, as the Guardia Civil has advised since March 2026. Advice on 017.
Can an owner have someone else's account taken down?: He can report it for impersonation and object to the photographs on copyright grounds. The decision rests with the platform.

Read on

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