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- Types of Scams
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Forex Trading Scams
You purchase land from someone who indicates to be the owner of the land. In some cases, they may be the actual owners of the land that they put on for sale and in some they may not be the real owners of the land. When you make the payment, be it full or part payment you do not get your money’s worth as it would be a scam.
How does this scam work?
In most cases, scammers advertise the land that they would be selling, be it via social sites or traditional means. You engage the seller, and they attach a price on the piece of land that is too good to be true and which forces you to make a rushed decision without conducting proper due diligence before making the purchase. They show you documents which indicate them to be the owner of the land and these may be authentic documents or fake ones.
The proposal of the payment to transfer ownership to you may be a once off payment of the full figure proposed or a payment plan that involves a huge deposit upfront just like many sales.
Once you make the payment, the scammer starts ghosting you, vanish or they will be available but just denying that they ever made a stand sale to you. In most cases, they will be having muscle to protect them, and evidence of the transaction having been performed will be their word against yours.
There are many ways in which this type of scam can be orchestrated and below are different ways in which it can:
Ways in which stand sales scams can be orchestrated:
Double stand sales – This kind of specific scam occurs when the scammer sales the stand to two or more different people. This results in a legal clash of ownership of the people who would have been sold the land. Eventually the one with authentic documentation and the one with title deeds at the Registrar’s office will win.
Cooperative schemes – These types of scams occur when cooperatives defraud victims by making them pay for land that they don’t own. The difference is that these set bodies and cooperation’s seem legit, and many people are defrauded from them that you would not think that it was a scam.
Paying to be on the waiting list – This occurs when an insider at councils indicates that they can get you on the waiting list to get a stand and you need to pay them upfront for them to put you on. They can either have influence in doing so or not but in the end, you never get the stand you paid for. Either way, corruption is a crime and bribery fall under corruption.
Red flags or Warning signs
- Pressure tactics into having you buy land
- Below standard pricing for areas and space that is worth more than is advertised.
- Title deeds that are suspicious in nature
- Seller that is hard to track in the case of complications
- Seller insisting that there is no need for witnesses when the land sales are done.
- Requests for behind-the-scenes payments for you to be on the waiting list
How to protect yourself
- Always have witnesses when huge sales of this nature are done.
- Seek for expert advice from fraud examiners and other experts (Get Help).
- Read articles that specify about land selling fraud and relevant content.
- Don’t bribe or be corrupt.
- Refuse to make upfront payments for shoddy deals
Have you ever been scammed?
- Do you think that you have ever been scammed? If you have, you can help the next person and guide them from not being a victim by reporting this scam.
- Reporting this scam can help your friends and family.
- Also, seek help and guidance on how to avoid being scammed.
- In case you have issued your banking details or any other personal information that can get your bank account defrauded, contact your bank immediately.
