We are a group of lawyers in Costa Rica providing legal support and assistance to nationals and foreigners.
Costa Rica is a country that attracts many people annually in terms of tourism. But at the same time, it attracts many foreigners for business reasons.
Unfortunately, Costa Rica is also used by many national and foreign criminals who operate from that country through websites to commit crimes and defraud many people from all over the world.
Fraudulent activities such as investments in raw materials are really Ponzi-type scams, where the victim is promised high-return investments with low risk that result in aggravated scams.
Another illicit activity is online casinos that operate from Costa Rica, because this activity is illegal to operate in many European countries and is also illegal in the United States.
This group of criminals only uses Costa Rica because it is a country where this type of license is not regulated.
That is where we, as lawyers, come in. If you have been scammed, it is important that you know that you can take legal action against this group.
This information is especially directed for any foreigner who has been a victim of a scam by a website in Costa Rica.
We have the experience, and we can advise you in the best way.
Countries like Costa Rica and Panama are used by criminals who hide and commit crimes in these countries.
We have qualified lawyers in both Costa Rica and Panama to support and defend you from these types of people.
Where there is deception, there is a scam.
The criminals make their victims see that the operations are real and that they are really investing in a legitimate website.
However, they make him send large sums of money to Costa Rica, but never before in the business had they talked about that country or that money had to be sent to that country.
In the years we have had experience, we have seen that the vast majority of those scammed do not file a criminal complaint because they are unaware.
They don’t have the slightest idea how to pursue the crime or what actions to take.
In the investigations of the Costa Rican authorities, we have seen that many of these criminals have never been convicted.
Another barrier that makes it difficult for victims is language.
The authorities in Costa Rica who carry out these processes do not speak English.
Something that is essential to being able to follow up on these cases.
We have bilingual lawyers who are necessary for these cases.
In some cases, the victims send money to several countries, which makes the case a little more complex, but we still know how to handle it.
Some international organizations consider countries such as Costa Rica and Panama as places where criminals from different parts of the world arrive to carry out illicit activities.
For example, Panama has been put on different lists for money laundering issues.
It is incredible the large number of English-language websites that operate from Costa Rica. With content that deceives anyone.
The victims are left sending money to Costa Rica.
Why do victims have to send the money to Costa Rica if it is supposedly a company in another country?
All this should alert people so that they do not fall into the networks of these criminals.
Scammers are very clever people.
Their psychological profiles coincide in many cases.
They tend to feel smarter than other people, feel superior, and are quite self-centered.
These criminals tend to dress well and speak well.
After having committed something illegal, they are experts at misleading their victims.
Scammers will do everything possible to mislead and thus evade their responsibility.
They tend to tell a lot of lies.
These criminals are even skilled at covering one lie with another.
They are cold and act very naturally.
They have no conscience for what they have committed, and they always play the victim.
Not feeling guilt or conscience is one of the main characteristics of scammers. They usually do a lot of damage by causing great economic damage to many people, and it may seem incredible, but this does not cause them any remorse.
Scammers have a high level of cunning; some may have many years of experience scamming, which is why it is vitally important that an experienced lawyer be the one to advise, present the complaint and follow up in these types of cases.
When victims have an experienced counselor, they should understand the following:
The attorney has handled these types of cases before.
The criminal or scammer may be stealing and partying every day, but the day of the victim will come when the criminal is caught and has to face justice.
A civil action arises from every criminal action, meaning that the victim has the right to file a civil action for damages.
We could write a book with the most incredible cases in all these fifteen years, and we are sure that it would reach the big screen.
The strategies that scammers use are incredible, and the way they try to cover up the evidence is impressive.
Some are foreigners, North Americans, or Jamaicans, among other nationalities, and they travel and settle in Costa Rica to commit the crime.
Because they know that if they operate from the United States, they would be caught very quickly, in addition to the fact that the penalty in the United States is much greater.
When they operate from a website and feel threatened, they tend to remove it in order to try to eliminate key evidence, such as expert evidence of the location from which they operate the website.
But there is much other evidence that these unscrupulous criminals cannot easily eliminate.
In most cases, criminals never show their faces and almost always hide behind a fraudulent website.
The modus operandi is through phone calls; they use false names.
We live in a world where meetings can already be virtual. If a scammer objects to having this type of meeting, this should immediately set off alerts in people. Telephone calls are the mechanism used by these criminals and their main weapon. If it is a real and serious business, there should be no problem holding a physical or virtual meeting. There should be no excuses or pretexts.
These criminals have an entire criminal structure that even uses call centers with personnel who speak a native English language; all of this is part of the show they put on for their victims. They make it look so real that it all seems true.
Another of the main tools that criminals use is to have conversations through emails. Many of the conversations take place through this medium, as if it were a legitimate company that answers emails. This is all part of the show they put on for people.
Whether it is investments or casinos, they dominate the topic. If it is investments, they handle the issue of investments in raw materials. If it is an online casino, they have the domain and programs for either sports betting or casino games where they do not pay the prizes that the players win. This is a basic principle and a fault that results in the loss of the license.
They are masters in the art of deception and master the laws and jurisdictions better than any government personnel.
The people most likely to be scammed are older adults.
Criminals know this and have a nose for finding their victims. In our experience over all these years, we have seen different groups of criminal organizations, and in many of these cases, we have realized that the vast majority of victims are adults aged 65 and over.
We have found groups of more than 400 older adults scammed by a single criminal organization that has managed to accumulate amounts exceeding 20 million dollars in scams.
But the fact that older adults are the most susceptible does not mean that they are the only ones. Any age can be conducive to falling into scams, especially for a young adult and an older adult.
Certainly, these criminal groups have a hierarchical order; it is rare for a scammer to act alone; he is always accompanied; and he always needs a group that makes him look real and authentic. They can even include women who answer the phone to make it look like everything has a real office atmosphere. But it is an office that no one knows about and no one has access to.
A lawyer is important from the beginning; if the victim in the fraud case had contacted a lawyer to verify and investigate a company, none of this would have happened. Because the lawyer would have investigated everything about the fraudulent company if it actually had the permits and licenses to operate. He would have done a full investigation and surely would have found that this is a fictitious company.
They say that one cautious man is worth two. The truth is that with this type of criminal, you need to have a lot of malice.
But don’t worry anyway; even though the crime has already occurred, there are still actions that can be taken.
We are specialists in the issue of scams involving large sums of money.
We see all types of legal cases in Costa Rica in matters of commercial law, criminal law, immigration law, and civil law.
