Describing the procedure…<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tIt was not difficult for me to guess that the discussion was about the property in the expensive area. That "opportunity of a lifetime", offered to me by the Greek. After I ordered my usual still water (the bored assistant brought a very cold bottle, so I could not drink it) we were ready to listen to the "facts".\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"The old man is ready to die…" "…who is the old man?" "Elias, please, Elias, don't interrupt", my Italian client asked me to let the gypsy gentleman narrate his story. "The old man is ready to die. I have received an empowerment by him and I have the right to sell his land. But it is not so simple. There are some more people involved, children and grand children. I have to give them money. I also have to give money to some people, so as to finish the papers fast. You will buy at this nominal price and you will give me 20 euro \/ sq.m."\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"So how much do you need for this project?" the thin Greek asked him. "40.000 euro or a bit more, but not more than 50.000" he replied. Then he asked for some "pocket expenses", as he would have to travel by train to Timisoara, in order to finish all the paperwork. "When do we finish?" "In 3 weeks time". "Are you sure?" my Italian clientwas anxious to know. "Very sure. As sure I am that I see you now" the gypsy gentleman replied.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"Vesuvius" exploded<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tI was feeling uncomfortable. "Mister…" I addressed to the gypsy gentleman who had just described all these "do you really tell us that everyone in Timisoara is stupid and you are the only intelligent one, who will manage to trick an old guy and his family? What is the proof you have for all these children fairytales?" Until the translation to be over, you could see the progress of his anger. He started listening to me calm and then he was becoming more red, second by second. He ended up being red like a tomato. "What do you want? Why don't you get the … out of here?"\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMy Italian client was watching the other two gypsy gentlemen getting upset too and he felt the need to enter in the discussion. "Mister, mister, you don't have to be upset. Don't explode so easily, like Vesuvius volcano! Ilia, why don't you relax a bit? You stress the gentleman". I turned to the second Greek of the "gang". "You had told me for 30.000 euro just some weeks ago. What happened now and the amount of money increased?" He pretended to become upset too. "Do you dare questioning my honesty? Young man, I didn't expect this by you". Then he said to all of us: "Gentlemen, let us have peace. I propose the following: I will pay from my pocket the first 10.000 euro and my Italian partner will pay his share after you will deliver to us the set of all the papers" these last words addressed the gypsy gentleman who had proposed the procedure..\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"One payment", meaning six<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\t"Don't give them money, not even one euro" I stressed to my Italian client. "Why, Elias, why? I will multiply my money by four times in just few months. Do you know any better business than this?" "All. Because in this one you will just lose". "My dear Greco, my friend, relax. You don't have to be so afraid. Everything will be under control…"\n<\/p>\n
\n\tYeah, sure. He paid the "pocket expenses" to the three gypsy gentlemen and after few days he was by contacted by the thin Greek. It was my client's call to start "investing" too, as "the first set of papers has arrived". I asked to see them but "it was not necessary" as I was told. Then a second payment followed. Then another three. (The thin Greek was always bringing "receipts signed by the gypsy" for his personal contribution but my client didn't want to listen to my objections). There were always different excuses "for the urgent needs". There was one more payment. And then silence.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tChasing ghosts…<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tFor about six weeks there was no news coming from the three gypsies. No news, but over 35.000 euro invested by my Italian client. The thin Greek was supposed to be upset on them and whenever my client was asking him what happened, he was playing the same "role": "Let me call, let me call". He was taking out of his pocket an old Nokia 7110 ("the immortal mobile" as he was bragging), he was spending thwo – three minutes in order to wear his glasses and see the numbers correctly and then he was calling the gypsy. Sometimes he pretended that he was yelling at him for not respecting his promises. Many other times the lines were "dead".\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMy client sent some friends of his to Timisoara, to search too. "I guess you have more chances to find him in… Alexandria". "It is impossible to disappear like this. He promised! We are so close to finish! And now they became ghosts! But we will find them and finish the deal".\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"He needs money, he is a fugitive"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tOne call gave news, finally. The thin Greek sounded happy: "Our friend is back. He has all the papers. But he needs some more money, I will explain to you when we will meet". My client was happy… "finally we will finish". "I swear to God that if you pay one more euro, we will have a very big fight together". He allowed me to go instead of him…\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOne more meeting, at the same showroom. This time I arrived first, representing my client too. The tiny Greek came after three minutes, dressed at summer pants and a old green Lacoste t-shirt. He started "explaining" immediately: "He is a fugitive, I didn't know. Now he told me. But he is not a bad guy, he just needs money. He will come with his real partner. Don't believe to him, but focus on this partner, who controls the situation. He awaits to reimburse debts, he will force him to be serious. We will pay a bit more and we will be rich". "How are you so sure?" "Look, I control this partner of his. I have some business, you don't want to know" (indeed, I didn't want to).\n<\/p>\n
\n\t"The road to nowhere"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tThe "partner" was a fat gypsy gentleman with 2 golden bracelets on each hand of his. Very short hair, "tough" face. We waited the fugitive for about two hours and a half, but he didn't appear. Up to a point he was calling to say he was on the road, then he vanished. "On which road is he, damn it?" the tiny Greek screamed. "We are on the road to nowhere", the old song by Talking Heads popped into my mind.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe end of games<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tBoth the tiny Greek and the "partner" assured me that everything was under control. But I was not interested anymore. I called my Italian client immediately and asked him just to listen to me: "They are crooks, the Greek is also part of the gang. Enough with their games". "But we paid money". "Better to lose what you paid so far, than to risk losing much more in the near future<\/strong>. But as you are still not convinced, let me act my way". "Go for it".\n<\/p>\n\n\tTwo different lawyers studied the documents. In just three days they had proofs that they were fake. All of them. The signed receipts as well, the signature was different in each and every one of them. The lady who was translating had informed my client for things which did not exist in the documents. The old man from Timisoara had died since some years already and his successors were fighting over some documents dated around 1955.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe lesson: "Too good to be true is usually… not true"<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\tMy client was feeling very bad. He was tricked by a gang of crooks. "How did you meet this Greek?" I asked him and heard the same story that happened to me. "And why did you believe him?" "Because he had strong arguments". "No, I think because you wanted to believe, this is why". He covered the loss only when he sold another property at a very good price, one year later.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe tiny Greek lived between Bucharest and Greece nowadays, searching for more victims. He always has a story, in different versions but same idea: Someone needs money urgently and he offers very big profits instead". I asked the lawyers not to continue chasing the gypsies. Why to do this? You can not win a game which has already ended lost. In the end of the day, the fault initially belonged to my client, he showed greed. In the same time, he proved once more that he is a man of his word. He covered all my expenses and fees, recognizing my work.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tNow that there are so many "intelligent" people with "super opportunities", please do me a favour and check everything very good. Because "what is too good to be true is usually… not true". And you don't need to lose your money so as to learn this.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Part 2 (to read part 1, click here) Describing the procedure… It was not difficult for me to guess that the discussion was about the property in the expensive area. That "opportunity of a lifetime", offered to me by the Greek. After I ordered my usual still water (the bored assistant brought a very cold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,204,236],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3229"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}