scams to be aware of

, 2007 After I was forced out of my home, I rented a flat near Karnak temple,The first day I went for a tea near my new flat. In the café I was approached by a man who said he had a flat to rent or If I wanted I could buy it. At this time I was totally unaware of scams relating to renting, the next day I went to see the property as agreed 10.00 o’clock, he could see my flat from his balcony and came to meet me. This was a really nice place his home was on the second floor all newly built above him there was another 2 floors that needed to be finished I.e. just a concrete structure, from this area the view was 360 degrees,To the front was the Nile and the Thebes Area, views directly at the valley of the kings mountain range and a clear view of Hatshepsut Temple. To the back was Karnak temple and from the roof you could see all the inside of the complex. What a place to have a flat. seeing my enthusiasm the price !£36.000.00 or If I need this flat I need five thousand sterling now. And £15.00 a month when you move in. I then asked how long will it be before I can move in . he most likely thought I was here on a two week holiday. And said about 6 months, I then asked can you make it sooner, like everything else here haggling is part of the game and as usual it was half, so I could move in to my flat in three months,Then we went back to his flat downstairs and here it was the usual crap, they think a cup of tea will get them what they want, I had to get the money to him by 11.00 the next morning as there was other people wanting the flat, the warning flag was now waving . So I played his game a bit longer,And asked a few more questions like has the flat bellow (mine) been sold , yes we start to build in two weeks, (enough time for me to be on a plane home) I then got up to say my goodbye’s on the way out he said promise you come with my money , I said yes if nothing go wrong “inshalla” god willing,I had heard rumours about the places coming down in that area, so I went to the council district officeTo see Dr Samir Fawak , Last time I saw him he said if I need to know anything to come and see him,He told me all in this area is coming down and very soon, and that was the end of that Game,Since putting my blog on my web site I have found out this guy has conned 20 people for me to know of, 3 lost 28 to 32 thousand they thought they had bought the flat. the others for 5 k each,2 weeks after I saw this property it was down, one English man was even sent a key to his property he arrived a couple of days too late, the land owner has since disappeared, not even the police can find him as his real name was not Abdul Said Alghany, After I received the 15th email I went back to the café in Karnak and what I was told .The reason he set up the scam was he was conned first , The guy bought the block of flats from another Egyptian who knew the place was due to be demolished, and another told me the original owner was paid from the council whatever it was worth, he then gave it to his nephew to live in until it came down, and no one knows where this boy came from or where he is now. it was a young lad who tried to con me, but as I say there is no one here you can trust to say the truth especially about a brother,Now if the guy was of a different faith he would not get ten paces without someone telling on him. This is another reason why the police have such a hard job of conviction here, And if they do get caught out, its like “ah” well at least I tried, they will not say they are conmen , they say we are the fools for giving them money, like my scallywag friend said to me:- you made me bad coming here with your money:- no answer to that is there?When buying property, this is a hard one to understand,“Ok” you have all your property papers every thing has gone nice and smooth, you’ve built the home of your choice, and now you want to sell, maybe like one American Lady who built a nice villa by Banana island Luxor, six months after they moved into their home the husband dies, and she wants to sell, big problems arise, why? they had done everything through a solicitor, had the right papers for the land,” what’s the problem” ? the electric is not in their names! What!! the guy who originally owned the land forgot to tell them the electric was still in his name, forgot or another one who knew the law here. The American had to sell at a very much reduced rate because she wanted to get rid and go back to the states, the new owners was left to fight and get the electric in their names, I wont mention you MRS P?Here in Egypt you have police who like to wear armbands so you can see at a glance who they are,The army police like to stand about guarding some building or other i.e. checkpoints visa offices etc but seem to be in their glory standing behind wheeled steel plates with a hole in them to rest the Kalashnikov rifle.The traffic police are also easy to spot as usually they will be sitting on a corner leaning on their patrol 150cc bikes, then you have secret police these dress in European cloths (not galabeia) and like to show off there armoury and walk about like the olden day gunslingers in dodge city, so not too much secret about them, the hard ones to spot are the water police,(the stuff that comes out of the tap in your home) the telephone police and the electric police they seem to have more power than the uniformed police, so where do you find the fore mentioned to get your papers? they have offices like Egypt’s faculty of elecery, like the youth clup is a misspell , Nile water board and Egypt telecom, your lawyer should also tell you this when you are buying land but like everything else here you have to jolt their memory.But as newcomers to Egypt’s wonderland its something we do not think about , and now you know “hoorah hooray“.now I can put my coat on the proper way, it seems my voice has been heard thanks to blogging“ Hooray again “ for wordpress or was it Google’s blogspot .
27/7/09 More from these liars I did not expect this from such a well known Egyptologist as Zain hawass.
If you want your story told please do a blog or put it on my comments, I will put it on here for free,I have nothing else to do, if I am on the computer I am not cooking so please think about my figure and give me something to write about, it may help others not to fall into the same trap.