Financial Scams in Colombia

The most common financial scam in Colombia is being defrauded by your loving Colombian spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend. Often, your spouse or significant other will carry out a financial scam while colluding with his or her family members.

Your Colombian spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend can take advantage of you knowing that you are not well versed in local laws while your grasp of the Spanish language is elementary at best.

It is quite common for foreigners to give money to their Colombian girlfriends to help him or her or their family members with medical expenses, rent, or tuition. But unfortunately, that money gets spent on other activities such as paying for plastic surgery, debts owed to friends or family members, or even spent on a vacation that he or she took without informing you.

Often family members of your Colombian spouse will approach you with a business idea and will ask you to invest in their business venture. You may be taking a big risk, not in terms of investing money in a business but thinking that it is an investment. Often it is not an investment but rather a donation. You should not expect to get your money back even if the business shows any sign of success.

Furthermore, some foreigners are too quick to hand over their credit cards to their Colombian boyfriends or girlfriends just to find out that the card has been maxed out while the money was sent by their Colombian girlfriend to her ex-husband or boyfriend or a family member.

Some foreigners make the mistake of giving keys to their apartments or homes to their girlfriends in Colombia later to find out that all the furniture and the appliances have been removed from their homes in their absence.

To avoid these scams, you must first trust your instincts and be careful of claims and complaints made by your Colombian spouse. If you sense that something is not right or something is off, then avoid that financial transaction with your Colombian spouse altogether.

Credit, debit card scam and wire fraud is all too common in Colombia and happens quite a lot in big cities. Card numbers and pins are stolen during swipe at local stores, gas stations, and thrift shops. Later these are duplicated as cards and are used in brick and mortar stores or on online retail channels.

It is quite common to get your credit card stolen electronically in Colombia while making a transaction. Some foreigners have reported that their credit card was stolen after they make travel-related purchases while using a travel agency.

Besides credit card fraud, wire fraud is common in Colombia. In one case, an employee at a legal firm tried to get the client to wire money to his account for business services rendered by his employer.

A lot of fake currency bills are in circulation in Colombia. You are most likely going to find fake currency bills while dealing with street vendors and taxi cab drivers.

During the exchange with a taxi driver or a street vendor, pay attention to the currency bills that a driver or vendor hands to you.  The currency bills can be fake and are quite hard to recognize especially if you are taking a cab at night.

Be especially careful when handling a large bill such as a COP 50,000 note to a cab driver and he returns the note saying, that he does not have any change. Upon your insistence, he magically finds change and hands it to you with the COP 50,000 bill. The next day you try to pay with that same COP 50,000 currency note that the cab driver or a street vendor gave back to you, and you’re told it is fake.