PAPHOS police are investigating a number of cases of Chinese property investors being scammed by at least two men posing as intermediaries for well-known property developers.
A Chinese woman gave money to these intermediaries to purchase land, only to discover that the land she’d paid for didn’t belong to the seller. She reported the matter to the Paphos police who started investigations.
The police believe that at least two local men are involved in the scam and have managed to extract in the region of €300,000 from their victim. The men are posing as middlemen for major developers and taking money from Chinese property investors. The police have not ruled out the possibility that other scammers may be involved.
Nicos Tsappis, a Paphos CID police inspector, has confirmed that statements will be taken to uncover the extent of the fraud.
So instead of cleaning up the reputation the Republic has for property investment – the strategy is then to wait until there are fresh streams of desperate people who want to get their money out of somewhere else and then take them to the cleaners?
Oh Cyprus ……
Clearly there is not enough “promotion” in Chinese done of the pitfalls of buying property in Cyprus… sad very sad…
Ed: A few year ago when the Chinese first started to buy properties here a Chinese friend arranged for me to see a journalist/representative from the Xinhua News Agency (this is the Chinese government’s press agency). I explained to her the potential problems that her countrymen could face when buying property. But she said that they were willing to pay any price to get residency.
After every scam in the book has been exposed when purchasing land and property in Cyprus why are people still not taking notice.
Who were the solicitors acting for the client ??. There must have been some sort of Chinese advisor who should have been looking after the interest of the client too. I do feel sorry for this woman but what can you do if people don’t take advice.
They never learn do they?
Well I would never have imagined it!