More and more reports for scammed foreigners by criminals hiding behind a Romanian company
Bulgarian citizenship by origin is one of the easiest ways to get hold of the dreamed EU passport. But there is a “catch”. And it is that obviously you must have Bulgarian roots. But what to do if you don’t? Just give up on your dream to become EU citizen? Here is exactly where many scammers are finding their victims. While you are surfing the Internet, out of nowhere an ad pops up with an offer that you cannot resist. It usually says something like:
Unfortunately this is all a scam and what is worrying us even more is that more often than not, the traces lead to scammers, who are using a Romanian company to market their “services”.
The scam
This is a well known scam and is explained in more detail in the article of VD&A – Scammers and Bulgarian citizenship by origin. In nutshell, the scammers are trying to convince you that you may be of Bulgarian origin. To verify that they will trace the birth certificate of your grandparents and should it appear that they have been indeed of Bulgarian origin, you will get Bulgarian citizenship really fast. You basically understand that there may be something wrong with all that, but why not give it a try.
Few weeks later you are told the good news. The company has found your grand parent birth certificate and, guess what, he or she is indeed BULGARIAN (by nationality). After you have paid the fee for the service of course, you submit the documents to the Bulgarian authorities and it all looks perfectly fine. You are now told to check on the official website of the Bulgarian citizenship directorate (you are given a login and a password) to see when your citizenship decree will be issued.
To your horror however, one day, you login into the system and you find out that:
And here you are. Not only have you lost all your money that you have paid on fees, but you are now facing a criminal investigation for fraud (and not only). You risk jail sentence and a life-long ban on entry to the EU and the Schengen area.
The Romanian connection
As we already wrote above, we receive more and more reports about a Romanian company that is used as a cover for the Bulgarian citizenship by origin scam. The “managers” of the company however are communicating with the victims in fluent Russian, so we believe the perpetrators are from a Russian speaking country. Most of the time, the falsified birth certificates are made to appear as if they are issued from Ukraine, sometimes from Russia or Moldova.
What to do if you think you may be a victim of a scam?
The scam is really wisely constructed. It is logical that virtually nobody is in possession of his parents, grand parents or sometimes even great-grand parents birth certificates. So when someone comes and claims that they can find those in the old USSR archives, it’s easy to be deceived. And when it later turns out that the birth certificate found indicates Bulgarian origin, the joy overcomes the common sense.
But if this happens to you, please be very weary if any of the following occurs:
- The “Bulgarian citizenship agent” is a Romanian company;
- The managers of the “citizenship agent” speak fluent Russian;
- If you are asked to pay the fee to a private individual (he is the money mule in the scheme);
- If you are somehow “convinced” that although you don’t believe to be of Bulgarian origin, chances are that you are.
In you are in any doubt, please act proactively. Don’t ruin your life and your future, because of fraudsters, who have stolen your money. Don’t let them steal your life too. Contact us as soon as possible. Protect yourself from the legal consequences of the fraud in which you may have been complicit.
Doing nothing will only prove that you are protecting the fraudsters. And this will definitely result in a criminal conviction.
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