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During the real estate bubble of the 70s and 80s in Japan, there was a type of Real Estate property that involved selling small parcels of land in forests that
by jbm 4y ago
During the real estate bubble of the 70s and 80s in Japan, there was a type of Real Estate property that involved selling small parcels of land in forests that had no roads coming to them. This was called 原野商法, and in an era with a serious real estate bubble and before Google Maps existed, there were many people who were conned by these ads - and not for small amounts of money.
Now, many years later, many people are still hanging onto the properties and are unable to unload them as they cannot conceive that their holdings are worthless. The shady RE companies sold their information (or passed it along within their 'organization') and the land purchasers are now preyed upon again; this time, by scammers who claim they can sell the property (but require a ~$3000 payment in advance).
This PDF is the crypto equivalent of that forest land buyers list, and everyone on it can look forward to being preyed upon for the rest of their life.
(Here is a great video about the whole sordid thing, Japanese only though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPzTDRmtozc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPzTDRmtozc)
- funwithjustin 4y agoThis is one of the most interesting comments I've encountered on HN. Thanks!
- jaclaz 4y agoAlso, "souvenir plots" in Scotland (and accompanying laird title): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laird#Souvenir_plots_and_false_titles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laird#Souvenir_plots_and_false...
- tokai 4y agoA bit different as people never buy the land officially (as in its not registered the Scottish official records). Every single one of these title sellers just pinky promise to keep a record of your ownership of their land and respect that it is yours.
- jaclaz 4y ago>A bit different as people never buy the land officially (as in its not registered the Scottish official records). Sure, much different also given that the money involved is much less, still a good proxy for gullibility.
- tokai 4y agoNot really. The Japanese thing is an investment scam. The Scottish think is somewhat transparent that your little plot of land is mostly symbolic. And literally noone buys the souvenir land as an investment. Its bought for the glossy certificates to gift that uncle that claim to be three-seventh Scottish.
- jaclaz 4y agoOne of the most prominent of these "laird" title providers switched from a scam for gullible people to green activities (saving unused plot of lands, re-creating wild-life habitats and similar) and now they make clear that the title is not worth the paper it is printed on and only a gadget, but a few years ago they promoted the whole stuff and people fell for it (just like they are falling for it now after the "greenwashing"). Lord Hicks of Lochaber would like to have a word with you: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/essex-fireman-is-new-highland-laird-1074925 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/essex-firem...
- floor2 4y ago> that uncle that claim to be three-seventh Scottish Bit of an aside, but I find it odd how hostile people are to Americans retaining any connection to their European ancestry. If I tell people I'm half-Indian and half-Persian nobody bats an eye. If my wife tells people she's half-Irish and half-Czech she gets treated like she's not supposed to have any heritage or culture other than whatever people imagine as "white American".
- jaclaz 4y agoI am not sure to understand, in which way is she (mis-)treated?
- luckylion 4y agoI understand it's common for scammers to follow this route. With the modern "tech support" telephone scams, they apparently do the same thing, and if the first wave has scammed you out of money, you'll get multiple additional waves that'll either try different scams, or build upon the first one and pretend to be a police investigator etc. It's strange to me that there aren't more coordinated investigations. Individually, these will often be smaller sums, nothing that'll justify international police actions, but collectively the damage is huge. Even just one gang will reach millions of USD. They're not criminal master minds, Youtubers are able to track them down.
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoIn France, if you have an inaccessible land, either: - it's surrounded by private property, and the neighbor must offer some sort of passage through their land to yours. If it's a field, it does mean to destroy permanently part of it so you can go through. - it has at least one border with public property, and the state must provide a real asphalt road to access it. However, you are left to organize traversal of your own land, so if your house is deep inside it, you get to pay. And of course, getting power lines and water pipes connected to it is still 100% at your charge.
- mrbombastic 4y agoThe same story played out in Florida only for uninhabitable swamp land, must be a common scam throughout the world. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swampland_in_Florida
- greengarstudios 4y agoNow they may be able to monetize these as collectors' items by turning them into NFTs.