Back in 2021, my husband was scammed out of 2 billion won. Long story short, he purchased a large plot of land (South Korea). However, the land was located in a mountainous area designated as unfit for development, except for military or public use. Under the Forest Conservation Act, the area was virtually undevelopable, as it was meant to be preserved. Police believe that the real estate group subdivided the mountainous land into smaller lots and sold them to over 3,000 individuals, deceiving them by claiming to have insider information about upcoming redevelopment in the area.
I’ve seen reports of this kind of scam before, and it’s fairly hard to defend against.
Unlike many scams, the scammers actually deliver what they are selling - the land. Of course they failed to mention it’s useless if you plan to develop anything, but that’s a lot harder to prove in court than a plain theft.
Do the buyers not visit the site first?
Do they not do even a little bit of research about the area before buying the land?
Do they not think about why the seller is selling the land at the moment right before when he thinks it’s about to become much more valuable?
It’s unfathomable to me how someone could spend that kinda money without talking to an expert or a government surveyor or something!
I spent a month considering if I should get a $500 GPU and I still fucked that up as it isn’t even working on my Linux server yet.