Maybe he's interested in reading some Brazilian chat-up lines or finding out which brothels are the best. I went on your forum once and it seemed there was a lot of that sort of valuable information there - seemed well researched.

Just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean everyone will, you openly admitted you went in with your eyes closed and from your description it does sound like you were a very easy, tempting target... Add that ingredient to 100k US$ and you'll have millions of people of all nationalities lining up to "help you invest". You just happened to meet a Brazilian. You admitted you did no Due Diligence. Unless you are doing at least some basic form of Due Diligence, you are property gambling, not property investing.

The basic of investing in Brazil is registering your money entering Brazil through the Banco Central. You can do this either by sending the money yourself or having it sent on your behalf. Once it is registered, if you get scammed you should be able to get it back no problem. However assuming you do your homework you shouldn't.

Now, if Manuel or Pedro tell you that they can get you a great plot at half price and get all licenses on it within 2 weeks and resell the land and double your money but to do that you need to give him cash in a paper bag and he'll scribble an IOU on some toilet paper - odds are you won't be able to get the money back if he scams you.

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Yes, I work for a Real Estate company doing market research and analysis but I'm not involved in sales.

Have a nice day