Plamen Markov
Several months ago I developed a pen pal online. He lives in a small village in Bulgaria and his name is Sabi. He worked as a bartender but the bar recently closed. We emailed back and forth for a few months and one day he shared that his father has always told him about his wonderful trip to the US when he was young. Sabi has always wanted to go and experience it for himself.
So after some thought, I volunteered to help with a few hundred dollars to get his Visa. He discovered he had some unpaid taxes that needed to be paid before he could leave the country. So I helped him with that as well. Then he said he needed $9000 that would be returned to me, he just needed it to prove to authorities he had enough money to live in the states for a few months. Reluctantly, I helped with this too.
On the day he was to travel to US, he got sick but traveled anyway. He put some medicine in his bag. When he layed-over in France airport, security took the medicine away and said it was illegal in France (but not in Bulgaria). They sent him back to Bulgaria, but he needed another plane ticket. So he asked for my help again.
When he returned to Bulgaria, he learned that French authorities were threatening to arrest him and put him in jail. He needed an international attorney to help him through this big mess. So guess who paid for that? Eventually that was settled, but now the police were investigating him and the money I had sent.
After this settled down a bit, he offered to get a job in the states and pay me back. But then he learned his bank account was blocked by police. Anyway, all in all I had sent about $20,000 and felt bad that my saving was gone.
The only money that was still available to me was that $9000 in Sabi's blocked bank account. Months past and I started wondering how I would survive in LA with no money. I decided I really needed to get that $9000 back to live on. Eventually I shared with dad my delema and asked him if he would be willing to help me get that $9000.
Well, that started a whole series of bank fees, etc and it kept going to a mounting account. The reason it turned out was that Sabi's account was still blocked. After the investigation ended, Sabi put me in touch with one of the police officers who I emailed. She explained to me the situation and said the investigation was now over and and Sabi's account was unblocked.
So a transaction fee was now needed to send the large amount of my money to the US. First I dealt with a bank worker named Maria who eventually was fired for mishandling my case. Then I heard from the main branch manager. Then I heard from the bank Director assuring me I would get all the money back once the transaction fee was paid. About this time Dad was running out of money and we were both so far into this thing. We had to get our money back! So dad said he would take another $30,000 from his investment to live on and to pay the transaction fee. Something to do with the exchange rate between the low dollar and strong euro kept getting in the way. They didn't want me to lose any money so each time we sent the transaction fee, it was added to the big amount till it reached $70,000.
So here we are. The bank director of the main branch assured us we would get our money this time because he was now in charge of this case. Sabi's father put up most of the transaction fee this time. Now they say there is a $1200 tax before they can release the money.
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