4. Making things complicated

You can clearly see that I wrote openly about my conerns with Carol.

Hi Carol,

I am writing to you from XXXX. My father told me that he had some
difficulties with the payment. We need to set up a security question
for the payment. I have no idea what it is, but I suppose it is
important for the payment identification. Anayway, I was strongly
warned not to do the payment via Western Union and honestly I do not
like that idea at all, but if you insist, I will do so. Send me please
your cellphone number (so we can send SMS messages to one another) and
also your signed contract.
I hope we will find the way how to work this out

best regards

Mathiew

I tried to get her cell phone number for the second time. I wrote this message in a separate thread, therefore I was not surprised when she wrote to my earlier messages.

Hi Carol, I am not sure if I had sent you my cellphone number, so just
in case it is: xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx. Since now it will be very difficult
for me to be online, so please if you have something urgent, write me
an SMS

best regards

Mathiew

OMG, it was more than obvious that she was trying to make pressure on me. A classical scammer move and I explained it (again wrongly) that she was worried about the payment and communication with her lawyer. Now I looked like an asshole, because Stefanie had already paid and I had constant troubles with that.

Interesting is that she gave me her lawyer s number for the second time. He must have been involved in this, otherwise she would not have pushed his number to me with such confidence.

Hey Mathiew,

How is xxxxxx?I understand your concern but i have explained everything to you yesterday about the banking credit crisis in the United Kingdom but  It would be better if you can transfer the money through western union as soon as possible so that we could proceed with next face of rent and you have nothing to fear or worry about the room is fully secure and reserve for you.You can use my Lawyer's name for security question and answer will be rent

So I will be happy if you can make the payment as soon as possible so that the Acknowledgment Receipt can be issued and Lease
contract signed.Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Hope you had great time in Xxxxxxxxx :)

Warm Regards,
Carol

P.S i have decided to give you my Lawyer contact information for quarante and peace of mind
Name:Graham Gover Solicitor
Tel:+447024092634

I was having some troubles on my trip and on the top of all, I still did not finish this accommodation issue.

Hi Carol, thank you, I will do my best. Hopefuly by tomorrow my family
will arrange the payment. Ok, the answer to the security question will
be "rent". I am doing OK, I am just upset that I did not get a place
on a train to Paris, so I cannot see it. Never mind, one day would not
be enough anyway ;)
pls send me a number where I can text you, otherwise I will have no
means to inform you about the payment.

best regards

Mathiew

So far, you could see several minor grammar mistakes (both in my emails and notes and her correspondence) Therefore, I thought that her mistakes were made just due to distraction or fluster. I would not have dreamed of an idea that she was a Nigerian scammer who did not have English as his/her mother tongue

Hey,

I have informed already informed Stefanie what you're going to do in case you can't through to my Lawyer
Hope to see you soon in Edinburgh

Cheers,
Carol

My mother still refused to pay via WU and I decided to make an excuse on that. Here I made a confident request to pay via regular bank transfer and stated my reasons for that. Ironically, I wrote about my worries that actually came true....

11.8  2010 18:25

Hi Carol, it looks I have another problem. The person I cannot get
through will be not your lawyer, but my mother :P Now I am away and
she cannot catch on that the payment neither dangerous, nor
fraudelant. You know, the Western Union has a very bad reputation in
Slovakia and everybody asking for money is automatically suspected to
by a scammer. I believe you, but simply I cannot tell her what she
should do with her money. Since I am completely broke and she is that
pesron who is temporarily lending me money, I cannot do anything with
that. I tried to persuade her, but unsuccessfully. Anyway, I have
checked the bank situation and I think it cannot be as bad as you are
saying. You told me that you would pay the fees for the transaction;
the fees makes more than 50€. By paying on your bank account I could
save your time, money and effort, therefore It would be much easier.
Or other alternative would be sending an insured letter on your home
address and you could have it cashed in any bank. Supposing that you
have a bank account, it should not have be a problem for you. All I
would need is the IBAN and SWIFT code, together with the photocopy of
your last bank statement.
I really do not want to complicate anything for you, but this is
really something I cannot solve while being away.
Please let me know asap what we could do with this situation

Regards,

Mathiew

She probably thought that I was not going to pay at all and did not write back. Waiting for her answer, it took me five days to write the next message. I wrote a final message that supposing she did not give me other option as WU, I was not going to realize the payment.  In fact, I would not have paid the money and had not written the next message at all if Stefanie had not already paid -   at that time I really could not chicken out of that, so I rather tried to make a final request to show that I was not going to back down about the payment option. Again, here is another sign that the lawyer cannot be innocent in this case: he was supposed to reply to my email and he did not. Who knows, they might have been considering setting up a bank account where I could transfer the money....

16..8.2010 17:34

Hi Carol, it has been a while since I wrote to you and you has not got
back. I was asking about some other payment posibilities and wrote to
your solicitor as well, but neither of you answered. I have travelled
around the whole Europe and everyone whom I told that I am supposed to
transfer money via WU was looking at me as if I were either stupd or
crazy. If you had agreed with a bank transfer, you would have had the
money on your account in several days - in this way we are just
holding up the whole procedure. Please understand my conerns - I can
believe you, but I have absolutely no guarantee. If you were in my
place, you would act the same way.
I really want to ask you for another payment option. All I want is a
serious business and paying via Western Union seems neither credible,
nor fair.

I am awaiting your swift answer

thank you very much

Mathiew