If your phone rings in English about your PayPal account, hang up. The Attorney General just explained why.

If you get a phone call from "PayPal" telling you someone bought crypto with your account and sent it to Russia, hang up. It's Wednesday, 24 June. Twenty-eight degrees. Here's what you need to know.

🌬️ AIR QUALITY: 22 (Good).

🗞️ TOP STORY

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL WARNED ABOUT A PHONE SCAM TARGETING PORTUGAL. IF YOUR PHONE RINGS IN ENGLISH, READ THIS FIRST.

The PGR's Cybercrime Office issued a public warning on Monday about a wave of fraudulent phone calls targeting residents in Portugal. The calls appear to come from Portuguese numbers but originate from Southwest Asia. They are always in English. And they follow a script so predictable that if you've received one, you can probably recite it from memory.

Here's how it works. Your phone rings. A recorded message tells you that a purchase has been made on your PayPal account, usually involving "crypto assets" sent "to destinations in Russia or China." The message asks you to press a key to cancel the transaction. If you do, you're connected to a person claiming to be a PayPal employee who confirms the "suspicious purchase" and tells you your computer may have been hacked. Eventually, they ask you to pay a third party to "reverse" the charge, or to install remote access software that gives them control of your device.

None of it is real. There is no purchase. There is no PayPal employee. And the person on the other end of the line is hoping you'll panic before you think.

For expats living in Portugal, these calls are particularly effective. The calls are in English, which immediately feels more credible to an English speaker than a Portuguese-language scam. The numbers appear Portuguese, which lowers your guard. And if you're not fluent enough in Portuguese to call your bank directly and verify, the scammer's "help" feels like a lifeline rather than a trap.

The PGR recommends: never provide personal or credit card information over the phone. Never install software suggested by a caller. And if the person on the other end realises you're not falling for it, they'll hang up. That's your confirmation it was a scam.

The broader picture is worse than this single warning suggests. Spoofed calls in Portugal surged 58% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period last year. ANACOM, the telecoms regulator, was itself impersonated in late May, with scammers calling from a spoofed version of its own helpline number. The tax authority has been cloned. Bank numbers have been faked. The sophistication is increasing and the regulatory response hasn't kept pace.

Bottom line: If someone calls you in English about your PayPal, crypto, bank account, or tax return, hang up. Call the institution directly using the number on their website. Tell your friends. Tell your parents. And if your grandmother has a Portuguese phone number, call her first.

⚡ QUICK HITS

54 "integrative medicine" clinics in Lisbon are misleading patients. The regulator caught one and stopped there. Público reported this week that the health regulator (ERS) condemned a Lisbon clinic for using the term "integrative medicine" to imply that unproven treatments had medical backing. The clinic responded by changing its branding from "Medicina Integrativa" to "Saúde Integrativa e Biológica," dropping the protected word and carrying on. Público then found 54 more clinics doing the same thing, all operating without consequence. If you've booked an appointment at a clinic offering "integrative" or "holistic" treatments, check whether they hold ERS accreditation.

Portugal thrashed Uzbekistan 5-0 today. Ronaldo made history. Cristiano Ronaldo scored in the 6th and 39th minutes, becoming the first player to score in six different World Cups. Nuno Mendes added a free kick in the 17th. Rafael Leão sealed it in the 87th. Portugal are through to the knockout rounds. The record is extraordinary. Whether a 41-year-old should still be starting ahead of Leão, Pedro Neto, and Francisco Trincão is the conversation Lisbon will be having over coffee this morning. The group isn't settled yet. Portugal face Colombia on Saturday night to determine who finishes top.

Fuel prices are dropping this week despite the geopolitical noise. Diesel and petrol prices are expected to decrease during the week of June 22-28. For readers who drive, fill up now. The drop may not last if the Hormuz situation deteriorates further.

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🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

CHATO (PENHA DE FRANÇA)

Under a bridge in Penha de França, in a part of Lisbon the newsletter hasn't covered until now, an Irish chef and a Guatemalan chef opened a vegan restaurant and called it CHATO, which translates from Portuguese as "boring," "flat," or "a pain in the neck." The food is none of those things.

Atlas Lisboa named CHATO their "New Vegan Joint off the Beaten Path" for 2025, which undersells it. Nile and Gabriel built something creative, colourful, and genuinely fun in a neighbourhood that nobody was paying attention to. The menu changes regularly. The plates are designed to make non-vegans forget they're eating vegan, which is the highest compliment plant-based food can receive.

Penha de França sits between Graça and Marvila on one of Lisbon's many hills. The neighbourhood has the Miradouro da Penha de França (equally stunning views, a fraction of the tourists), the Mercado de Sapadores, and a mix of old-school tascas and new arrivals that feels like what Intendente was five years ago. CHATO is part of that wave: a restaurant that could only exist in a neighbourhood that hasn't priced out the people willing to take risks.

→ Exciting Vegan food under a bridge. Find them here ←

Penha de França, on Rua Cesário Verde.

Insider tip: Go on a weekday evening when the neighbourhood is quiet. Order whatever the kitchen recommends. Stay for the conversation. And if you're sceptical about vegan food, this is the place to have that argument settled.

📅 WHAT'S ON

See you tomorrow morning.