A city where many clients search for you in English
Málaga has become home to a large international community: retirees, families, remote workers and a growing number of tech companies and start-ups. If you run a business here, many of your clients and partners look you up in English, on Google, on review sites and in expat groups on social media. A bad review in English or a hostile thread in a forum for foreigners can matter as much as anything published in the Spanish press.
Cloned websites and holiday rental fraud
One of the most common problems on the Costa del Sol is a fake website or advert that copies a real holiday rental, an estate agency or a property manager in order to take deposits for bookings that do not exist. These cases are urgent because new victims appear every day the site stays online. We act with the hosting provider, the domain registrar and the search engines, and we document everything with a forensic report in case you or the victims want to report it to the police.
Reviews and posts in several languages
Google, TripAdvisor and Booking apply the same rules whatever language a review is written in, so a fake review in English, German or Swedish can be challenged in exactly the same way as one in Spanish. The same goes for impersonation on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. What changes is the argument: each platform has its own reasons for removal, and choosing the wrong one is the most frequent reason for a rejection.
Which authority and which court
If your personal data is published by a company, a website or a search engine, the competent authority is the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), whether or not you are Spanish. Only when the data is held by an Andalusian public body does the Andalusian Transparency and Data Protection Council take over. If a case has to go to court in Málaga, we work with a law firm and provide the forensic evidence; court proceedings are in Spanish, and we help you understand each step in English.
Where we are
We do not have an office in Málaga: our only office is in Tres Cantos, near Madrid, and we work remotely with the whole of Spain. Requests to platforms, search engines and authorities are made in writing, so you do not need to travel. Every case is reviewed by Javier Arenillas, an IT specialist, SEO analyst and court-appointed IT forensic expert with a master's degree in cybersecurity. More about us.
Not sure whether it can be removed? Try our feasibility simulator or read our guides in English.