Reporting a crime online to the Policía Nacional or Guardia Civil

Reporting online means notifying the Policía Nacional or the Guardia Civil of an alleged criminal offence via the Internet, without physically going to a police station or barracks. It is designed for simple incidents without a known perpetrator.

There are 2 official channels: the Virtual Complaints Office of the Policía Nacional (denuncias.policia.es/OVD) and the electronic report of the Guardia Civil Electronic Headquarters. Both are available 24 hours a day.

Reporting is free of charge through either channel. Managora drafts and prepares your report, checks that the incident is admissible electronically and guides you step by step until it is signed.

You can report thefts, loss, misplacement or theft of documents or objects and damage online, provided there is no known perpetrator. The theft of vehicles and objects from inside a vehicle is accepted through both channels. Scams or fraudulent charges committed over the Internet are reported online through the Guardia Civil.

You must attend in person (or call 091, 062 or 112 if the crime is in progress) when there has been violence or intimidation, when you know or can identify the perpetrator, when there are witnesses, in cases of gender violence or sexual offences, if the complainant is a minor, in the event of a missing person or if you need to provide physical evidence.

This limitation is not set by Managora: it comes from article 266 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal (the Spanish Criminal Procedure Act), which excludes these incidents from the electronic channel.

The Policía Nacional report submitted through the Virtual Office is, in practice, a draft: it becomes valid when you sign it at the police station you chose when filling it out. You must do this as soon as possible and never later than 72 hours.

If you let this deadline pass, the report expires and has no legal validity: you would have to start again from the beginning.

With the Guardia Civil the process is different: when you sign the report with a digital certificate or Cl@ve, it is submitted at that moment and does not need subsequent ratification at the barracks.

When you submit the report you obtain a number and a receipt or voucher. This is the document that proves you have reported the incident and which will be requested in various subsequent procedures.

It is used to claim from your insurance (theft, damage), request a duplicate DNI or passport due to loss or theft, cancel cards with your bank due to fraudulent charges and leave a legal record of the incident.

Keep the receipt: without it, many entities and insurance companies will not process the claim.

You need your identification details (name, surnames, DNI or NIE (the Spanish foreigner identity number), address and contact details), the approximate date, time and location of the incident, a description of what happened and the list of affected objects or documents (brand, model, serial number, or card number and amount in scams).

For the Guardia Civil you will also need a digital certificate or Cl@ve to sign; for the Policía Nacional you do not need a certificate to fill in the form. The fields marked in bold are mandatory.

Managora gathers and organises these details with you, drafts the report and checks that it meets the admissibility requirements before submitting it.