Old-Fashioned Land Scams Go High-Tech

The Internet is reviving a grand old American tradition: land scams. Thousands of lots in phantom subdivisions that were sold decades ago to people who hoped to build retirement homes in warm states are reappearing on online sites such as the Internet giant eBay.

The new wave of land scams has the potential to snooker millions more around the world because of the Internet's broad and instantaneous reach.

Many of the lots being sold have never been developed because they are on swampland in Florida or isolated desert ranchland in Texas and Arizona. There is no road access, water or power. The land might be developed someday, but county officials who are busy processing a surge in deed transfers are skeptical.

Land scams are surfacing in:

•Florida. The state has a long history of bogus land deals. In Flagler County, a scam that began in the 1970s was revived recently when the same lots in a subdivision that has yet to be built appeared on eBay. Some paid $5,000 for parcels worth $500, Daytona Beach land-use lawyer Glenn Storch says.

•West Texas. Land there is plentiful, but not always hospitable. Arid acreage in Jeff Davis, Hudspeth and Culberson counties has been auctioned online to some unsuspecting buyers.
"Much of the property was advertised with photos showing things like running water, green trees and green grass — things that simply don't exist in that particular location," Medley says.

•Arizona. "A huge problem," says Utley, whose agency monitors real estate agents and developers. "We actually don't even have enough staff to address it." read more

By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY