In my
practice I see many cases of swindle in many various types. People can easily
wander during the process of buying a property or can get scammed through
deception or misguidance. And over and over again I keep wondering what the
main cause of this kind of swindle is. Of course it is always about the money,
but money is not the cause. It is the reason why people get scammed. My
question is about the cause of scams singly. I think the answer is very simple:
It is our built trust in our fellow human.
The story I
am going to tell you now has affected me and I am sure you are not indifferent.
This lady
has bought together with her husband a nice apartment in Alanya from a construction
builder. In this period she met a sworn translator whose services they needed
at the Tapu Office. He helped them very good and they stayed in touch. At the
moment that the couple had divorced, the property in Turkey was assigned to the lady. Half
of the house was on name of her ex husband and had fully come to her name.
Again she used the services of the same sworn translator and also this time it
went smoothly. The lady got the Tapu completely on her name. She was happy.
After a
couple of years, she thought it would be a good idea to transfer the Tapu to
her children, in case something would happen to her. Till now she always used
the services of the same sworn translator, who also became a friend during the
past years. Someone she trusted completely and it was clear that also this time
she would ask him to take the job. On his request she gave him a notarized power
of attorney; she signed a couple of documents and gave him the needed documents
from the children.
After 6
months she was told by the sworn translator that her property had been sold to
somebody else. At first she thought he was making a joke, but when she found
out that he was very serious she went looking for a lawyer to look into her
case and to claim her tapu. After 2 years her lawyer told her that it is a lost
cause. And that is how I met this lady when she visited me in my practice for a
second opinion.
Now the
question arises whether this lady can claim her property back or not. The
answer on this question depends on the evidence. Can she prove that this man,
who she trusted completely, has scammed her? And what about the rights from the
people who bought her property?
She gave
this man a notarized power of attorney to sell and transfer the property on her
behalf. She never thought about the fact that this power of attorney was
drafted too broadly. In this case my advice to her would have been to give a
power of attorney that only gives the right to sell and transfer the property
on behalf of her children. THAT was her intention. This way the sworn
translator would never be able to sell the property to a third party. The third
party could never have relied on the power of attorney that he held. And
because of this it is that the court has deemed the case not proven.
The sad
thing about this case is that during the court case she found out that the
sworn translator had pilfered her signature on a blank paper and later wrote on
this paper himself that she had received
the complete amount of money from the sale. This lady not only lost her holiday
home, she also lost her rights to reclaim the money from the sworn translator.
And with this a dream and trust in a fellow human turned into a nightmare.
In Turkey it is
easy to become a sworn translator. Don’t get me wrong, it is a respectable
profession. As long the translator does what he should do, The Translation, I
have no qualms.
But most of
the time they also do consulting work or worse attorney work. There is no guild
or order that effectively controls their actions or calls them to order. Be
careful with the trust that you give away.
