Guess who I got an email from? The dignitary from Africa needing to get eighteen million dollars out of the country and not only that, out of all the people in the U.S. he chose me to help him.
And…
If I do decide to help him I will get a fee for this of 10% or $1.8 million dollars! Wow, what a great deal?
Of course this is spam (scam) email that I am talking about here and there is no dignitary and there is no money. It is all part of a scam that has been around the internet since its early days of internet.
However, the problem is even though it is a scam there are some people that still fall for this scam even today. And I know a guy that did.
Buddy Caught In Real Estate Scam
The guys name is Don P. and he was one of the smartest guys in the real estate world that I knew. Don was a guy that specialized mainly in industrial properties and was in the real estate brokerage business, successfully, for over 30 years.
Just the kind of guy you would think would NOT fall for a scam like this.
But he did…..
Real Estate Scam Unfolded
Don got an email about 10 years back from a supposed real estate buyer/investor from Spain claiming that he was going to invest up to $30,000,000 in industrial property in Iowa as a means of getting some money out of a politically unstable country, wanting a better return and eventual plans of moving to the U.S.
However, this investor needed Don's help to do this since the investor claimed his money was being held in a Swiss bank account. In order to get this money, this thirty million released, he needed money to do this and asked Don for some short term loans to provide him the capital needed to release the thirty million.
The investor told Don that he would pay him 1.5 X the money borrowed in short order once the funds were released.
And of course buy lots of properties from him.
Well, Don fell for it.
Traveled to Meet Scammers
Not only that he got other investors to go”IN” with him and over a two year time period paid these scammers over a million dollars. These scammers were good too because Don made two trips to Spain and met with them on two occasions.
Once the cat was finally out of the bag on this the scammers disappeared and so did the money.
Gone.
Invest Cautiously w/Real People
Sad story with lots of lessons to be sure. Right now I would say I get about twenty emails in my junk mail per day with some scam. I got one from the Secretary of the Treasury, The FBI, two priests and a nun just last week.
All asking for financial information from me.
I laugh at this of course but the problem with this is these spam emails would not be going out unless they did not work. And unfortunately Don is a prime example of that.
In today's world where high returns are hard to find it can be easier to fall for this kind of thing. It is out there and probably not going away none to soon.
Investors want higher returns and these scammers know that too.
Always invest with those that have a verifiable track record, references and real world positive results with transactions of investment real estate.
Please….If it sounds to good to be true…it usually is.
We love your feedback and welcome your comments.
Please post below: