Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller discusses the intricacies of dealing with Latin American currencies for expats. He highlights the importance of using US dollar accounts for financial security, as opposed to local currencies, which are often less stable and more prone to manipulation. He also explains the significance of choosing the right bank in Latin America, emphasizing the need to select private, conservative banks owned by long-standing, wealthy families. These banks are more reliable and less susceptible to government interference. Johnny also shares a personal anecdote about his own experience with a high-interest local currency CD, which he warns could be risky due to the potential for currency devaluation.
Johnny Mueller discusses the topic of currency stability and investment opportunities in Latin America, particularly focusing on the Guatemalan Quetzal and other Central American currencies. He references an email from Jack Brett, a knowledgeable expat, who notes that despite the strengthening of the US dollar, some Central American currencies like the Quetzal have remained relatively stable. Johnny explores the reasons behind this stability, suggesting that it may be due to the influx of US dollars from remittances, which significantly impact the economies of these countries. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding local currency rates and the potential advantages of using both local and US dollars when shopping in these regions.
Johnny Mueller discusses the economic challenges faced by Latin American countries, particularly focusing on the impact of remittances and the value of their currencies. He contrasts the situation in Central American countries like Honduras and El Salvador, where a significant portion of the population resides in the U.S. and sends back remittances, with South American countries like Mexico, where remittances are less impactful due to logistical and economic factors. He also highlights the historical instability of Latin American currencies, using Argentina as a prime example of hyperinflation and currency devaluation over the past few decades. Johnny emphasizes that while some currencies may appear stable in the short term, they have historically crashed against the U.S. dollar, often in dramatic ways.
Johnny Mueller discusses the hyperinflation and currency devaluations in Argentina and Brazil, highlighting the drastic loss of value in their currencies. He mentions the replacement of the austral with the peso and the significant drop in value, as well as Brazil's history with the real and crucero. He warns about the risks of investing in local currencies and suggests keeping only a small amount in local accounts. He also touches on Panama's government employment statistics, noting a high percentage of government workers.
In this segment, Johnny Mueller discusses the impact of tourism on government employment in Latin America. He compares countries on the 'gringo tourist trail'—such as Costa Rica, Mexico, and Uruguay—with those that are not. He notes that in tourist-friendly countries, government employment rates hover between 15 and 25 percent, which is comparable to the United States. In contrast, countries not on the tourist trail have government employment rates between 5 and 9 percent, indicating a significant difference in bureaucracy and public sector growth. Johnny suggests that the influx of tourists leads to increased demand for services, prompting local governments to expand their bureaucracies and hire more workers. He then shifts to a more personal anecdote, describing how poor families in Latin America celebrate Christmas with minimal gifts, often consisting of second-hand clothing. He highlights the cultural significance of school uniforms in helping poor children feel equal and the broader appeal of working for gringos due to their generosity and better treatment. The segment concludes with a promotion for Johnny's seminar and a call to action for listeners to visit his website and YouTube channel.
Topics
Latin American currencies, Banking in Latin America, Expatriate financial planning, Currency risk and investment, Currency stability in Latin America, Investment opportunities with US dollars, Impact of remittances on Central American economies, Exchange rate strategies for expats, Comparison of Central American and South American currencies, Economic instability in Latin America, Impact of remittances on local currencies, Currency devaluation and hyperinflation
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:59 Discussion on Latin American Currencies 00:03:09 High Interest Rates on US Dollar Accounts 00:05:45 Johnny's Personal Experience with Local Currency CDs 00:05:58 Potential of US Dollar CDs for Expats 00:06:06 Email from Jack Brett on Currency Stability 00:11:29 Impact of US Dollar Remittances on Central American Currencies 00:12:19 Remittances and Their Impact on South American Economies 00:13:15 Comparing Remittance Rates in Central and South America 00:14:55 Long-Term Currency Instability in Latin America 00:18:00 Introduction to Currency Issues in Argentina and Brazil 00:19:12 Warning About Currency Problems Coming to Other Countries 00:23:31 Discussion on Panama's Government Employment Statistics 00:24:03 Comparing Government Employment in Latin America 00:25:53 Christmas Traditions in Poor Latin American Families 00:26:57 The Benefits of School Uniforms in Latin America
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wander Hello there all you expat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started first I'd like to apologize for not having a show on Friday the 18th Just happened to have blown out my voice and none of mother's usual remedies worked not this time I've been doing this show five years or so now and I think I've missed exactly six shows and all that time
[00:49] Not bad. I guess. Anyway, you might have detected my voice was in shreds in the show I did last Sunday and it's recovered a bit now. So here we go. Okay in the past I've spoken a bit about Latin American currencies That is their funny money versus US funny money because you know down here when you open a bank account You can get one in the local currency and US dollars Some accounts are convertible within the same account, too And of course if you wire transfer any US dollars down to a Latin American bank account and you have it converted instantly to the local Funny money, they'll do it at the absolute best rate you can get whereas with the guys on the street changing money and those money-changing booths in shopping malls and at the airport the so-called Cambios you can count on them screwing you out of five ten even 20%
[01:36] And by the way, whatever Latin American country and you'll always have to have some of the local funny money on hand because Locals especially off the gringo tourist trail only accept their own crappy currencies By the way, you gotta love those Latin American currencies They're oh so colorful and have all those pompous genocidal dictators on them Whereas us funny money is bland and bluish green and well kind of boring In fact, I've even overheard Latin's commenting about our money while holding it in their hands Of course, I'll never say that to a gringo But I've heard him say things like how come the great big us of a with all its power and might how come it doesn't Have more colorful and interesting money on that score I've heard them say they've really got a speed and really I have to agree with them though
[02:21] As far as the dead presidents we've got on our money for now At least there's not one pompous genocidal headshot of a dictator to be seen But you can bet fashions will prevail and those rainbow colors will come and those Conservative old-wretches founding fathers and statesmen will be pushed aside for today's more fashionable cult of personality Surely they'll be replaced with scumbag politicians And yes They will be politicians because there are no statesmen to be found and if you don't believe that just try to name one yourself Bet you're a Bitcoin you can't so anyway when expats come down to Latin America They do have to transfer money generally and it lands in a US or local funny money account That's when new expats find out what so many of us long-term expats found out many years ago
[03:09] Surprise surprise you can get US dollar accounts that pay four five six seven even eight percent a year believe it or not So what's the risk? Well, like I said in past shows if you pick one of the two or three Strongest banks in that Latin country your money will be safe though You do have to be very selective about the bank you choose because you know the average Latin country might have 20 30 40 50 Even a hundred different banks, but they'll be those top three banks that have been around 25 30 50 even a hundred years I'm talking about private very Conservative banks that are not beholden to the government because you see in Latin America a private bank is really private Allow me to explain turns out the top families the big 10 or 20 of the rich established families in any Latin American country
[03:57] They own the sugar and pineapple and coffee plantations the mining interests the cement companies Coca-Cola you get the idea They're definitely not new kids on the block and they've owned these things for 50 75 100 even 200 years We're talking about gigantic land owners here with huge payrolls and tremendous cash flow So where do you think they bank in someone else's bank? Why should they they have payrolls to meet in their own funny money and deal? In a huge export profits in US dollars, which is why so many years ago these top families started their own banks So as you occasionally read about banks here and there going under that is if you can read Spanish just remember There's always a handful of banks in any Latin country founded by the oldest and wealthiest families that really are immune from all that
[04:44] So with 20 30 40 even 50 banks to choose from how do you find those strong conservative old banks? Your lawyer will certainly know like I said in the past show Your lawyer has the inside dope on the strength of the banking system in his own country on the other hand I've seen fresh gringos come down and pick out a bank on the basis of talking to another gringo They just met at a B&B Taco Bell McDonald's or a gringo bar. Nope. That's not how you want to do it You definitely want to put that on your list the very first visit you make to your new lawyer In fact, if you want to cut through the chase, just ask your new lawyer What bank he uses and that'll be your new bank? Oh, and by the way when you do get down here and walk into a bank You will be enticed by those high interest rates you get on Latin American CDs in the funny money
[05:32] In fact, generally whatever they're offering in US dollar CDs You can just about double that and that's what you'll get with the local funny money currency. Great deal, huh? Well, that's a subject I'm gonna go into a little deeper right now since personally some years ago I was sucked in to a local funny money CD myself was paying around 14% a year interest how about that when in the very same bank a US dollar CD was paying seven or eight percent and at that time in the States US dollar CDs were paying three or four percent. So could that be a smart thing to do? What's the risk if you try that? Well, let me start out with this email from a very knowledgeable and well-traveled seminar attendee Jack Brett who you might remember Wrote that book called fast Spanish a boots on the ground guide to learning your Spanish in Latin America
[06:20] The best and least expensive way that said Jack titles his email Welcome to the world of crashing currencies courtesy of the Fed He says hey Johnny just looking at the world of crashing currencies after listening to this guy named Andrew Hoffman in a show Entitled strengthening dollar means big trouble all around then I realize there are some very good deals in some parts of Latin America Considering how the dollar has strengthened seems that places like Columbia Argentina and Chile are on sale if you've got dollars Not that I'd necessarily want to buy in any of those places But anybody who does could pick up a deal what I'm puzzled about most is the Guatemalan Quetzal It just seems to float along there between seven point seven and seven point five to the dollar year after year
[07:12] With its big supposed breakout to eight point two five to the dollar in 2009 and then slipping back to seven point seven to seven point five to the dollar once again And now weirdly enough the damn thing seems to be strengthening against the dollar What gives with that Guatemalan Quetzal then Jack said I looked at the limp era too That's of course in Honduras and it looks like it was devalued in 2012 But it's not really doing that bad since it's only lost about 15% in three years Compared to what's going on with a lot of other currencies in the world. That's just a nick So then what's up with these Central American currencies? Why aren't they crashing? I was thinking it might have something to do with their economic connection to the US
[07:57] But the Mexican peso is down almost 50% since 2008 now I know this topic probably isn't exactly a stimulating crowd-pleasing favorite It won't have them on the edge of their seats listening to your show But I bet it's something that some of your listeners are really thinking about oddly enough in a weird way It's like the Guatemalan Quetzal might almost be a safe haven who to thunk Anyway, just thought I'd mention this in case you have any interest in talking about currencies on your show Thanks, Johnny Jack Brett Okay, Jack and you know it might be a boring topic for many of you wannabes and gonna bees up in Montreal Milwaukee and Cleveland But once you get down here men you start looking at the local funny money currencies versus the dollar pretty much on a daily basis
[08:43] Why because with those daily fluctuations no matter how small you can often tease out little advantages for yourself now if you remember in a show I did maybe a year and a half ago I mentioned that some big stores like Sears Walmart Costco For example and a lot of stores in big malls that have first world Franchises will take both the local funny money and US dollars even well off the gringo tourist trail Which is why as I mentioned you should always carry a bit of both the local funny money and us Funny money because more often than not you can really beat the bank rate Especially when you're off the gringo tourist trail simply because those stores many times just won't keep up with the current exchange rate Just because there are so few people paying in dollars Sometimes they'll have the currency rate pegged to a very very old figure sometimes weeks or months ago
[09:31] I can't tell you how many times I've made out on a deal like that So no matter what store you go in just ask Quales el tipo de cambio. What is the exchange rate even if the place hasn't accepted dollars in weeks or months Sometimes the policy is that they will so just ask like Jack Brett says right now the Guatemalan Quetzal Seems very strong they name their currency after a bird by the way a bird the local Guatemalans have hunted to extinction I think there's only two or three nesting pairs left in the whole country and they're in protected preserves run by guess Who do gooder gringos of course you think the locals give a damn nope to a poor undernourished Guatemalan They taste just like driveway chicken, but about these Latin American funny money
[10:19] Devaluations and in some cases like the Guatemalan Quetzal apparent long-term stability Well, you have to know that when you get a lot of long-term gringo expats together the subject does come up In fact a lot of diverse subjects come up because you see most expats that I've run into are way above average Come on They wouldn't be down here if they didn't have something on the ball They're the ones that figured out a long time ago that the first world was going to hell in a hand basket Nope, it's never easy being a step ahead of the crowd Okay. Okay, I'll admit it's not that we've suddenly become respectable in the eyes of the folks back home in Cleveland It's just that they no longer have to make up excuses to the neighborhood Busybodies who wonder why we left the land of the freaks in the home of the sheeple. Nope It wasn't that your babysitter dropped you on your head when you were four as it turns out
[11:07] You really were the smartest slug in the family only no one back home figured that out until just recently Anyway, you won't read about this anywhere in Latin newspapers because they're clueless But the consensus among us long-term gringos why the central American currencies remain so strong against the dollar while South-american currencies continue to take a beating well That's mostly due to those massive US dollar remisses flooding into those central American countries monthly In fact in some central American countries Those remisses are so large as to make up the largest part of their GDP So with all those US dollars flooding into Latin American banks By a simple rules of economics, there's no shortage of dollars in countries like Nicaragua, Costa Rica
[11:54] Honduras Guatemala and Salvador In fact to see articles in the papers in Central America saying that the banks are virtually flooded with US dollars They can't use and too many dollars means of course The value of the dollar will be somewhat depressed Just like if there's a glut of any item too many refrigerators too many washing machines too many gallons of gas Cartons of cigarettes or boxes of depends whereas when you're looking at countries in South America You'll realize right away that remisses that is money sent back to the home country from up in the States makes up a very Tiny percentage of their GDP less than 5% usually and why is that? Well for South American countries as a percentage of population. They have a very few people living up in the States It's just too damn hard to get from South America on through to Central America
[12:43] Then Mexico and sneak in the US fact is you can't get from South America to Central America by land It's got to be by air or sea which makes just that first leg of the journey virtually impossible for poor South Americans Take Colombia. They've got a population of about 45 million people and up in the States There are said to be 800,000 Colombians. That means about one out of every 56 people born in Colombia are living in the United States right now That's less than 2% of people born in Colombia But now let's take the Central American country of Honduras It's got a population of about six and a half million people and it's estimated that there are just over one million Hondurans living up in the States by the way the vast majority of them illegally
[13:28] That means one out of every six people born in Honduras is now living up in the States and get this one in five people Born in El Salvador are living up in the States, too Meaning 20% of the world's Salvadorian population sending back remisses So high remiss numbers means a glut of dollars Resulting in more stable local funny money And if you want to prove that to yourself just get some boots on the ground and go to Argentina or Venezuela With their very low remiss in numbers and heavy controls on US dollars now in the case of Mexico Sure, they have a ton of remisses coming in But it's not that simple there are a lot of other factors including the fact that their number one export Natural gas and petroleum products and they're priced now at their lowest level since 2008
[14:17] And of course, they've got that huge narco state going which some say is the biggest part of their economy right now So in Mexico, there's a currency tug-of-war going on and the peso is losing again Not to mention they've got a thoroughly corrupt government presiding over a failed state So you really can't predict anything but doom in the long run for the Mexican peso Okay, let's get back to the other essential American countries Now just because their currencies seem somewhat stable at least over the past five or ten years Would those countries be as Jack Brett said good places to park your dough because they seem stable Well in a word no Because in the long run the currency of every single Latin country has crashed and burned sometimes in spectacular ways
[15:03] Against the US dollar now, of course, Latins don't know that the US dollar has lost 96% of its purchasing power since 1913 the year the Federal Reserve was created and believe me You'll get nowhere by trying to force that kind of information down a Latin person's throat They just won't believe it and even though as Jack Brett said that Guatemalan Quetzal has kept its same value against the US dollar for the past ten years more or less Especially as Jack Brett pointed out other Latin currencies specifically South American currencies have been absolutely destroyed some by 50% in just the last year or so that said the very first time I rolled through Guatemala in 1985 the Quetzal was at parity with the US dollar. Yep one to one
[15:52] So that means in the last 30 years, it's lost only about 800% against the US dollar. Of course, it's true It took that big hit in the first 20 years and after that very stable taking virtually no hit at all That said when I first rolled in in 85 if I'd have kept my money in the Quetzal I'd have been wiped out but that's nothing compared to what happened to currencies in South America during the past 30 years So, how about a few examples starting with Argentina since it's all over the news lately Did you know that Argentina has had five different currencies in its modern history Starting with what they called the peso Moneta nationale. That was the PMN then they had the peso lay Then they converted to the peso
[16:37] Argentina then they converted to the Austral and now they have the current peso convertible now try to follow me on this I know it's gonna be hard because even in Argentina, they don't quite understand what happened now that first currency The PMN was used until 1970 so that's not so long ago now at first in the early days before World War one It was tied to gold then of course, like every other country. They abandoned the gold standard in that period of time It lost six hundred percent to the dollar. So they decided in 1970 to replace that PMN by the peso Lay not to be confused with Frito Lay. It's peso So what they did was they pulled two zeros off the PMN and called it the peso lay So what was originally a hundred peso note was now a one peso note
[17:26] then inflation got way out of hand again and in 1983 they changed the peso lay to the peso Argentino and get this dropped four zeros off all the notes So now a 10,000 peso lay note was equal to a one peso Argentino then they had runaway inflation again and in 1985 the peso Argentino was replaced by the austral and they dropped three zeros off the argentino So if you were living in Argentina, you knew exactly what hyperinflation was like people talk about Zimbabwe and the Weimar Republic After World War two in Germany, but almost no one mentions it happened in Argentina, too. Anyway in 1992 not so long ago the austral was replaced by the peso convertible
[18:11] And they dropped four zeros off of the austral now The point is if you lived in Argentina and you had an Argentine past book savings account and you suffered through hyperinflation and the dropping of all those zeros if you would do the math and you won't you would see that the currency retained only 170 trillionth of its original value. I know this is hard to believe but it's 170 trillionth of its original value And at the moment the Argentine peso right now has an official value of four point seven to the dollar But trades on the semi-illegal free black and gray market for about seven pesos to the dollar Yep, like the Venezuelan Boulevard. It's in the toilet again and on its way to zero now
[19:00] I know a lot of you out there are just not gonna be able to comprehend the tragedy in all of this I'm sure you're sympathetic and you're probably thinking those poor stupid Argentines That's a shame and you're thinking it can't happen here, right? Well, sadly huge currency problems are coming to a neighborhood near you and if you don't quite believe all this you think I might be Exaggerating or even making this stuff up send me an email and I'll pop off this article to you so you can see it for yourself Oh, by the way, you can get some boots on the ground in Argentina Go to a bank and get an Argentine one-year certificate of deposit at 25% interest sounds great, right? In fact one Argentine bank I'm looking up right now call ICBC Will give you twenty nine point one percent on all one-year CD and pesos
[19:46] Yeah Well, if you don't know the history of the Argentine currency and banking system It sounds too good to be true And of course if you know what we know it is oh and by the way if you want to take out a loan That same bank ICBC in Argentina will give you a house car or business improvement loan for a mere 37.6 annual percentage rate such a deal, huh? But they got a lot of takers for that Okay Now let's talk about the currency meltdown that happened in that Great Bricks powerhouse Brazil for 150 years Brazil had a long-standing currency called the real and in 1942 They created another one because of massive inflation called the crucero and they dropped two zeros Then after another round of massive inflation in 1965
[20:32] They replaced it with the new Cruciero and they dropped three zeros meaning a thousand-dollar Cruciero note was now a one cruciero note after another 20 years of government thievery and stupidity in 1986 They changed the new cruciero and replaced it with a cruciero drop three zeros there then in 1993 after another round of hyperinflation The new cruciero was replaced with the cruciero real and they dropped three more zeros Then in 1994 after another round of hyperinflation The new cruciero real was replaced with simply the real and at that point you could take your old cruciero Real's go to a government bank for every 2750 of them they'll give you a new real since then the real has lost about two-thirds or more of its value
[21:24] Relative to the dollar and by the way if you had one of those original reals in 1941 before all those devaluations You would have seen that coin or note devalued about a quadrillion to one Do you know what a quadrillion is? Well, you will pretty soon because it'll be a very common word as the US starts using that to describe its debt now for those of You who are old enough to remember back in the 70s that word billion just started coming into popular use In fact, I remember back then most people didn't know how many zeros a billion had in fact in 1968 It was said the first two billionaires were created. That would be John Paul Getty and Howard Hughes before that the only person who Regularly tossed that word billion around who actually made it popular was good old Carl billions and billions
[22:13] Sagan and his famous cosmos series on national public television before that nobody really knew what a billion was then again That was way back when a billion was actually a pretty big number and now we have trillions even Google's and the soon-to-be popular quadrillions But I digress as usual. Where were we? Oh, yeah, Brazil Oh, and by the way, if you're in Brazil and you go into a bank and want a personal loan, you'll pay around 75% annually sounds like a deal, huh? So anyway back to Jack's original email Would it be wise to park your money in certain Latin American currencies? Well, I would say only if you're a gambler and only for very short terms Let's say no more than three months. And by the way, I have played that game I won on the interest rate side and I lost when I converted it back into US dollars. Was it worth it? Did it pay off?
[23:02] No, but remember you do need to have a local funny money currency account in a bank Unless you're in a Latin country that uses the US dollar. That would be Panama Ecuador and El Salvador However, if you're in any one of the other 17 Latin American countries that have their own currencies You will want a US dollar account and a local funny money account too So then how much should you keep in the local funny money account? I'd say about two or three months worth of expenses. No more. Okay, let's change gears a second now Here's more confirmation that Panama is well on the gringo tours trail. Listen to this According to this article from December 15 2015. That's a couple of days ago. Now. There are exactly 214 thousand three hundred and thirty three government employees in Panama. So what's that mean? Well
[23:50] According to Nation Master employment statistics, there are one point four nine million Panamanians in the workforce, which means fully fifteen percent of the Panama workforce are your typical lazy-ass Parasites working for the government. So how does that compare with other Latin countries? Well, guess what in countries like Costa Rica Mexico Uruguay countries? Well on the gringo tourist trail there are percentage of government workers hovers between 15 and about 25 percent Right up there with the percentages of parasites working for the US government Whereas with the other 15 out of the 20 Latin countries that aren't on the gringo tourist trail The percentage of people employed in government is between five and nine percent That means in countries off the gringo tourist trail. There are about 50 percent less government employees
[24:40] So what does that tell us? Well, I think you got it by now when the gringos flood in they want more services Or at least the local Latin government believes they do so they start growing their bureaucracies accordingly and hiring more fat ass slugs So then which Latin country do you want to live in just asking and now as we close in on the holidays a kind of a Sad story the other day. I was talking to my maintenance guy's wife She was telling me how her and the people in the neighborhood celebrate Christmas. Now remember these are very poor people I pay my maintenance guy like about $15 a day and she gets about $10 a day as a house cleaner now Don't get me wrong. They're not moping around or depressed about it In fact by all accounts, they're very happy people who would much rather be working the kind of jobs
[25:29] They do then live the life their parents did working on a farm for rice beans and chickens Anyway, she said her four or maybe it's five kids get two gifts a year one for their birthday and one for Christmas And those gifts are clothes and she said the kids look so forward to getting a few new Articles of clothing that when they open their presents late on December 24th They put the clothes on and sleep in them And she says most kids leave the price tags on their pants or sweater or whatever they get Sometimes get this for weeks and weeks until they get ruined in the wash or simply fall off Oh and she said on Christmas Eve all the children put 12 pennies under their bed or whatever the smallest Denomination of coin happens to be which promises 12 months of good luck in the new year. Oh, what about the clothing gifts?
[26:20] That's why when you come to Latin America, you see all the grade school kids in uniforms That really helps out poor parents when it comes to clothing their kids and I found out it helps the poorest of kids Self-esteem as well because when they're at school at least they're all on the same level They all wear exactly the same clothes So you can't tell the really poor kids from the middle-class ones not by appearance anyway Whereas for school kids up in the States, there's tremendous competition among brands and styles of clothing Now I don't know whose idea it was years and years ago to force Latin kids to wear uniforms at school But it turned out to be a very good idea No wonder poor Latins so much prefer to work for gringos because we're generous We often give them extra food to take home and other free things
[27:09] Not to mention we don't treat them like second-class citizens like so many Latin bosses do whoops We're near the end now So I'll just mention I have a few spots left for my 2016 Latin insider seminar go to www.thenewexpat.com and click on Johnny's seminar link. Oh and don't forget to check out my youtube channel subscribe It's free, you know South of the border You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border Email me the expat files at gmail.com And if you want me to help you sort out your own Latin American plans schedule a one-on-one Consult with me just send an email and let me know at the expat files at gmail.com. No spamos