SleeplessInMunich

i recognised his voice. it was him.

Hello, does anybody know what rights I have or action I can take to recover money that I lent to somebody who is now ghosting me?   The situation is as follows: At the end of December last year I got a call on messenger from an old colleague (we worked together 2001-2003). We got on quite well when we worked together but had basically lost touch since then. He told me that he urgently needed some money to pay for some documents or something on that day,  that his pay check hadn't yet gone onto his account, he was unable to reach anyone else that day and decided to try calling me as a last resort. He promised to pay me back as soon as he could. He asked for €300 and seeing as it wouldn't break me and I used to know him, I transfered the money by PayPal. He thanked me and promised to repay me soon. After 1 month I hadn't heard anything so I sent a message to ask what the plan was for the repayment. He answered and asked if I could wait until the end of Feb. I said okay. At the end of Feb, he messaged me again saying that he had been to the bank to take out a loan and that the funds would be availble mid March. On the 10th of March he messaged again and said that the money will be there on the 17th of March.  Since then I haven't heard from him and he has ignored the messages and emails that I have written asking about repayment.   So basically do I have to just write it off as a loss or do I have some other options to legally ask for it back?