More on John Freeman (the latest?)
Wish I’d read this last Wednesday. Here is the latest(?) John Freeman scam. He had been in contact with my boss for sometime about the prospect of a lucrative contract with a Citation when he asked if he could immediately supply a safety pilot to sit right hand on a ferry flight from Crete to Aarhus. Fees etc were agreed and commercial flights booked when he asked a small favour: could we bring $1000 which the owner would exchange for euros. Long story short, the next day I was left stranded in a taxi outside a bank in central Athens minus the money. This could have been the end of the story but it wasn’t. John F. then phoned to say there was no problem, go to the hotel and cash and ferry would happen tomorrow as planned; ‘don’t worry’. The Chief Pilot(Mike Griffiths) was already in Crete. Meanwhile, my boss checked out the call sign of the ferry plane (VP-BCS) turns out to be Lan Chile Airbus which John explained had been re-registered recently.
My question is why did he continue the scam with false assurances after he had the money? Was he working a parallel scam and could not disconnect his mobile?
I filed a police report the next morning when he no-showed at the hotel: he did phone to say he would be wiring the money back to my boss (again why does he elaborate like this?).
He was about 45, about 5’9”, Greek (obviously John Freeman not his real name) with dark curly hair and beard. His mobile phone was 00306976928447. He’s personable and very apologetic and has a stammer, which makes you sympathetic to him.