Land banking

Hello Mr. Tan

You gave some excellent coverage on UK land banking scams in the past. While such scams no longer seem to be allowed to be promoted in mainstream media advertising in Singapore they are still alive and well. The companies have switched to promoting themselves on jobsites and other unregulated blogs. There are also still cold calls with invitations to attend no obligation events in plush hotels with free gifts. Some companies are even applying for planning permission on UK green belt land plots. Such an application will cost around S$20,000 and might take two years to be rejected including appeals. The application is used as "proof" that the planning approval is "almost there" by unscrupulous sales people.

In order to counter the flurry of pro landbanking blog postings perhaps you could share this list of links with your readers highlighting recent scam awareness activities from the UK related to land investments and land banking.

Man loses £85,000 to land banking scam
http://www.ulstergazette.co.uk/articles/news/19461/scam-robs-man-of-his-85-000-lifes-saving/

Land Banking Scams still conning investors
http://www.farminguk.com/news/Landbanking-scams-still-conning-investors_19943.html


UK national fraud investigation bureau
http://www.nfib.police.uk/nfib-enewsletter-february-2011.html
"Land banking fraud is when people are conned into buying UK land thinking it will significantly increase in value. Sometimes the valuation of the land on offer is much lower than the quoted price, and sometimes the land being sold does not even exist."


http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/news-feb11-be-alert-to-land-for-sale-scam
Some unscrupulous sellers have made millions of pounds by duping people into buying unsuitable plots of land at vastly inflated prices. The sellers persuade them that the land has potential to be sold at a profit to developers looking to build houses. In reality the land may  be totally unsuitable for housing and has little hope of ever getting planning permission.