Bogus property owners scam millions from Hong Kong buyers and banks
Police claim con artists posing as flat owners have duped finance companies and home buyers out of HK$227 million in the last three years
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 28 May, 2016, 12:02am
UPDATED : Saturday, 28 May, 2016, 12:05am
Christy Leung Clifford Lo
Con artists posing as flat owners have duped finance companies and home buyers out of HK$227 million in the last three years, *police said yesterday.
The most common tactic is to use forged land title deeds and identity cards to claims loans. Among the cases, one of the *syndicates was accused of *cheating two finance companies out of more than HK$51 million this year alone.
“Fake property owners *consisted of men and women. Some of them claimed they were from the mainland and presented bogus Chinese passports when applying for mortgage loans,” Chief Inspector Kattie Chan Ching-sum from the commercial crime bureau, said.
Scammers also used fake *identification documents to open bank accounts which were used to collect the money if a mortgage application was granted.
“Such frauds were uncovered when finance companies failed to receive repayments one or two months later and contacted *genuine property owners and they realised they had been *cheated,” Chan said. “The culprits disappeared once they obtained the loan amount.”
The force recorded 52 reports of property fraud involving more than HK$227 million in total since 2013. Just this year, police *handled eight cases involving 13 properties and more than HK$80 million.
Investigations showed local *finance companies were the main targets in the property fraud.
Nine home buyers were *targeted since 2013 and they lost more than HK$8 million in total, police said.
This year, the force received only one such case in which a fake flat seller used a bogus Hong Kong identity card to sell a flat which he did not own and made off with HK$2.9 million. The *swindler also used the card to open a bank account to collect the money received.
It is understood the price of the flat the seller offered was well *below the market in a bid to *attract potential home buyers.
Police said the bogus seller *disappeared after receiving the deposit or down payment from the victim.
As scammers usually *contacted the victims over phone, Chief Inspector Chan urged *finance companies and home buyers to contact genuine flat owners through different channels and make further inquiries.
