Originally Posted by JMBroad

Do you speak Portuguese Raimundo?

Just wondering because you seem very knowledgeable about south america in general but I'm surprised that you would base your experience in Brasil on one event which happened to you personally. Don't get me wrong I totally agree with you about researching the property to death and making sure everything is 100% ok before investing. But you can't meet someone in Brasil (or be introduced) and trust them implicitly from day 1 with your hard earned money. No matter who recommends them.

One thing everyone seems to have either forgotten or is just ignoring - Brasil is a relationship country the same as Portugal - nothing like Spain and I assume therefore quite different from other countries in South America which are more similar to Spain - just guessing there though as I don't know the rest of South America very well yet.

The Portuguese and the Spanish are nothing like each other. The Brazilians are very similar to the Portuguese and therefore also nothing like the Spanish.

To get something done in Brazil you need to have Brazilian friends. And when I say friends I don't mean "buy a stranger a soda and talk to him condescendingly". A lot of people seem to think that to become friends with the "natives" you need to spend money on them. Not at all true.

But you also can't be seen to be an idiot. It's a tough country because you need not only to find the right person to help you but then you need to earn their respect while also giving them your respect. Anything else and you may well get taken for a ride. Oh and if you are the type who goes to Azucar every night to meet the girl of your budget you probably won't be getting much of that respect.

Or you could go the Dotty route and "find a brazilian agency in the yellow pages and they will be safer than an established european agency".

Originally Posted by Raimundo

If I may offer some advice--be very careful when investing in Brazil, and if you do buy, research the property to death. Lawyers in Brazil are slick and I don't trust any of them. My investment group was scammed in a small city north of Natal and we hired a lawyer based in Rio and recommended by the American consulate. We paid a retainer fee of $1,500.00US and five years later nothing has been done, and the lawyer makes excuses. He even offered to handle it the Brazilian way, but we had to pay more $ for him and his accomplish (use your imagination) to fly to Natal, Hotel, food, etc. Suffice to say, I have zero plans of ever investing in Brazil again. Keep in mind the judicial system in Brazil is almost non-existent and only works for the super rich or the 3% that controls all of Brazil; mainly white super rich folks based in Sao Paulo, and gringos have no leverage what-so-ever.

I personally think some Brazilians enjoy when a foreigner gets duped... maybe jealousy of the first world lifestyle, not really sure but jealousy does exist but never spoken about. And there is no recourse if you are duped and cheated and consider your loss or gift and cough it up as a lesson learned or the infamous Gringo Tax. And according to the World Fact Book, Brazil is Scam Ground Zero. Meaning more scams are produced in Brazil than any other country in the world. The Nigerian email scam the bulked millions from innocent people was started, managed and operated from a run down house in Olinda, a small village north of Recife, Brazil.

Not to slam Brazil.... but the country does have a lot to offer. Maybe the most raw talent in the world-the people, and Brazil has all the natural wonders; Amazon, Beaches, fruits, etc. But the corruption, the undermining mindset and flawed character of most are questionable ay best. Most Brazilian don't trust each other, that said, the argument is how can we trust them?

Originally Posted by Golfingworld

Raimundo, I know where you are coming from, certainly some see foreigners as there for the taking and when taken the view is "well they were gringos". No doubt about that.
Difficult to generalise but some of that culture has attracted equally unethical scam artists from overseas. It's just that the ones from abroad are more spohisticated about it. In my experience when abroad, it is my own countrymen that are first to put their hand in the honeypot and we foolishly thought we could trust them. Long and the short of it is that you can buy a cheap property in Brazil because it aint easy..if it was, everyone would be doing it!

Originally Posted by JMBroad

One thing everyone seems to have either forgotten or is just ignoring - Brasil is a relationship country the same as Portugal - nothing like Spain and I assume therefore quite different from other countries in South America which are more similar to Spain - just guessing there though as I don't know the rest of South America very well yet. The Portuguese and the Spanish are nothing like each other. The Brazilians are very similar to the Portuguese and therefore also nothing like the Spanish. To get something done in Brazil you need to have Brazilian friends. And when I say friends I don't mean "buy a stranger a soda and talk to him condescendingly". A lot of people seem to think that to become friends with the "natives" you need to spend money on them. Not at all true. But you also can't be seen to be an idiot. It's a tough country because you need not only to find the right person to help you but then you need to earn their respect while also giving them your respect. Anything else and you may well get taken for a ride. Oh and if you are the type who goes to Azucar every night to meet the girl of your budget you probably won't be getting much of that respect.

Originally Posted by deedee1

Hi all,

Has anyone had any further feed back from their solicitors regarding the situ??
Has anyone started to claim back their reservation refund yet?

Did anyone manage to send back the latest form declaring to the admin money you have held with GS??

Take care-D