海角乱伦

Many Colombians seem to fall for pyramid or Ponzi schemes, get-rich-quick by investing money on the word of an "insider" who may be a trusted friend or family member, who heard about the "opportunity" from some other friend or business associate...

In 2008 there was the Crisis de las Pir谩mides, a nationwide scam which was presented as an opportunity to buy goods and services using prepaid cards with much of the money supposedly being returned later based on how many others an individual could recruit into joining the scheme.

Here are explanations in English and Spanish:

The common theme in almost all scams is that you can get something for (almost) nothing, but only if you act quickly...

海角乱伦 men thinking with their ***

Facebook Marketplace weather you are buying or selling is full of fraud and scams. If your buying or selling some scammers go to every conceivable idea how to make contact and build a story that seems legit (con job) then try to take you.

Now I'm a audiophile and love vintage stereo/amplifiers/speakers so if I come across something I like after a few messages (due diligence) I will pull the trigger and DRIVE to view the item, meet the seller and confirm everything.

In the past handful of years I have driven to Cucuta, Bogota on a number of purchases, small pueblos in Antioquia and a few weeks back drove down to Cali and Palmira, again all great purchases but it was in person, face to face and only after an extraordinary amount of due diligence.

These items are priced between 2 to 8 million and I only deal with good rated sellers.

Now what is a shame is that a year ago I saw a really cool small vintage Coke sign on FB, a very small item, listed for 60 mil with a good seller in Ibague and after a few messages and a little due diligence I took a risk and sent 60 mil plus 20 mil to ship to me, wham they were gone. Lessons learned and again this passed even my check list due diligence.

Same when I list an item on FB, usually an electronic item, I have heard every story, almost daily when I have an item listed of how the 'buyer' is interested but only trying to figure out how to get the item free.

I do not have any problem with scams. My knowledge of Spanish is good. I live with native speakers and I have common sense.

@nico peligro

Well this聽 is the most common and most聽 聽dangerous scam.

Something like聽 30 deaths from burundanga聽 overdoses in Medellin last year, mostly foreign.men

When we聽 were inTurkey, our tour guide聽 said he had a friend聽 who went to Colombia聽 to " meet聽 girls", amongst other things,. and ended.up half naked, unconscious in the street, with his wallet and phone missing,聽 and one聽 of聽 his bank accounts empty. He considered himself lucky to be alive.

These are extreme cases, but quite common still. Less dangerous, but even more common is your garden variety " gold digger" or interesada, as they call them here

@nico peligro

I think I have been lucky so far, living in Barranquilla for 2.5 years. It's true that despite all my best attempts to connect with the educated professionals (whether English-speaking or not), the only people who want to communicate with me are the "dregs" - prepagos, interesadas, and the truly desperate. I've been lied to (of course, it's the culture), misled, deceived, and taken advantage of (once or twice I actually allowed it, as part of my research).

But AT LEAST I have never been drugged, robbed, or assaulted! I have seen and heard so many horror stories, it breaks my heart how so many men don't "pay attention" and do any research before going to meet their Sexual Basic Needs in Medellin (or Colombia in general). So, I thank the 鉁║niverse鉁� for several things: my early decision to avoid Medellin like the plague, my 20% luck, and my 80% "abundance of caution, Trauma Response, and paranoia" 馃槄

--- STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T CARE FOR MY SIDE-TOPIC RANTS 馃槅 --

On side-note, I am 99% sure that I was "shut out" of the educated/professional scene due to

1. (1) my skin color,
2. (2) my low listening comprehension of the local dialect (Coste帽ol, AKA "garbage Spanish" 馃憟馃徑 I make no apologies for this opinion, BTW), and
3. (3) Severe lack of expat support and community.

I look forward to trying Cali and/or Manizales later this year. I already have a lot of contacts (both social and professional) in Cali, and my Listening Comprehension of their accent is markedly higher than here on the north coast. I wish it was as easy as the Bogota or Medellin accents, but we can't always have what we want, heheh

Call me crazy but - in spite of everything that has happened (or more like, NOT happened) - I am still optimistic that SOME good Colombians exist out there. Just not on the North Coast (and if they are, well, they are doing a really good job of making sure that foreigners don't see the good/educated/honest population of Barranquilla).

Anyway I'm already cataloging and tagging my belongings for sale, donation, and storage ahead of relocation in September/October. Barring a nuclear catastrophe or some other Earth-shattering event, 2025 this will definitely be my last year in this misbegotten flyover town called Barranquilla 馃檹馃徑馃檹馃徑馃檹馃徑

I forgot to mention the land scam.

More common to target naive unsophisticated Colombians who read a " for sale" sign for land sale out in the country and dont check to see who is the real owner woth the escritura聽 ( land title) at the local alcaldia, then give a bunch of money to scammer who put up for sale sign, some times even starting construction that later has to be demolished.

I had an odd one happen related to an apartment rental with no fiador requirement.聽 The rental agent said if we paid 6 months ahead there would be no fiador requirement, she had me speak with a gringo tenant who had been happily renting from her and all was well.

At 6 months and 12 months we made another two 6-month payments.聽 All seemed fine until the portero told me that the ownerwas wanting to talk to me, would it be ok if he gave her my phone number?聽 Came to find out that the rental agent was not forwarding my 6-month payments when I sent them to her.聽 In fact, she was running perpetually late on the rent MONTH AFTER MONTH and was telling the owner that I was a scumbag tenant.聽 I promptly sent the owner proof of payment and the rental agent was fired and the owner took over the lease.

I don鈥檛 know if this could have been avoided.聽 Would the agent have given me the owner鈥檚 name and number if I had asked up front?聽 Probably not.聽 BUT, if you make friends with the portero you should be able to get the contact info, or at least get him to send a note to the owner requesting them to contact you should there ever be any issues.

@Adriana Gutierrez

Yeah that's real "poverty mindset" scumbag behavior from them. Glad you got is sorted out!

@nico peligro

On the subject of land purchases, beware of land that is titled 鈥淧roindiviso鈥�.聽 聽It is basically a joint title among all of the owners of a larger parcel of which the lot you鈥檙e interested in is one of several.聽 聽You are going into a partnership with total strangers.聽 Walk away, even if it is owned by your 鈥渢axista de confianza鈥檚鈥� inlaw鈥檚 family!

If your a local Colombian be it here in Medellin or Bogota or Cali there are scam lottery tickets for sale, we are talking big time scam where thousands of Colombians have been scammed from fake lottery's.

At root is corruption, it's in the culture and the mindset is to get ahead at any cost.

TGIF to all everywhere, be safe, have fun!