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The OMIC continues to provide its services to the public electronically and through the 010 phone service. Claims and enquiries will continue to be preferably dealt with online. For those inquiries or complaints that require face-to-face attention, you must make an appointment in advance on the municipal procedures portal prior appointment, by calling 010, or at the Municipal Procedures Kiosk.

Phone scams and identity theft in the spotlight at World Consumers Rights Day event

The event, which took place on 14 March under the title Calls and mobile messages to consumers: service or scam?, and was organised by organisations from the consumer affairs sector, the CUS/ACPB, AICEC-ADICAE, FACUA, OCUC, UCC and UNAE, with the collaboration of Barcelona City Council, was well attended, with more than 60 participants from organisations, the consumer affairs section of the ICAB, businesses and the Consumer Affairs departments of various public administrations, such as the Catalan Consumer Agency, Barcelona City Council and other local councils.

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19/03/2025 - 13:25 h OMIC

The introduction to the event was delivered by Isabel Pons, from the ADICAE, and Carme Caro, head of the Municipal Consumer Information Office (OMIC), who then gave the floor to Guillermo Canal, telecommunications engineer and arbitrator for Consumer Arbitration Boards. He spoke about the new ministerial order, Order TDF7149/2025, of 12 February, and about how it can help to protect consumers and businesses from identity theft carried out through fraudulent phone calls and text messages and scams in different consumer areas.

Following this, a round table was held to discuss issues related to the order and to address questions raised by members of the audience. Taking part in this round table were the speaker himself, Roger Sala, head of the Virtual Policing Region of the Mossos d’Esquadra police force, Albert Garreta, lawyer and CUS/ACPB mediator, Erik Pazos, lawyer from FACUA Catalunya, Josep Aulet from the UCC and moderating the debate was Xènia Escoda, manager of the OCUC’s legal department. Over the two hours of the event, there was a lot of discussion on how to prevent criminal practices, and lots of tips shared.

Finally, closing the event were Carme Sabater, from the CUS-ACPB, and Francesc Puigdomènech, director of the Directorate of Consumer Services and Barcelona Consumer Arbitration Board. They both thanked participants for attending and thanked the entities for organising the event and called on everyone to continue collaborating and working together to protect consumers and provide businesses with advice on consumer affairs.

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