Madrid , Spain ( CNN ) -- Spanish authorities have arrested 25 people suspected in a 10 million euro ( $ 13 million ) fraud scheme targeting German owners of timeshare vacation property in the Canary Islands , police said Friday . The suspects contacted the timeshare owners , offered lucrative terms to buy their shares and lured the owners into paying what turned out to be non-existent taxes or transfer fees , Spanish national police said in a statement . The timeshare property never actually changed hands , and the suspects vanished , only to surface elsewhere and repeat the alleged scam , police said . With help from the German Embassy in Madrid , investigators identified a web of suspects spread among numerous businesses and locations , mainly on Tenerife Island -- one of the largest of the Canary archipelago of seven islands in the Atlantic Ocean . Authorities arrested 23 German suspects , one Polish suspect and one Swiss suspect late last week , police said . It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects had been arraigned or whether a judge had ordered them to jail or ordered their release . If convicted of fraud , they could face up to six years in prison , a police spokeswoman said . Several million Germans visit Spain annually , especially the Canary Islands and also the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean , and many also own property in the country . They , along with other property owners -- foreigners and Spaniards alike -- have felt the deep economic downturn after Spain 's real estate bubble and construction boom collapsed . Many owners have tried to sell their property , usually finding depressed prices , not the lucrative terms that the suspects allegedly offered to the German timeshare owners .
Canary Islands vacation properties are the target of the scam . Police say suspects convinced owners to pay cash for sales that never went through . The German police helps uncover a web of suspects . Twenty - two German suspects , one Polish suspect and one Swiss suspect are arrested .