The Policía Nacional on Ibiza have arrested a 30-year-old Italian man, accused of the commission of five real estate scams on the island of Ibiza. The investigation has been able to determine the alleged responsibility of the detainee in at least five cases reported at the Ibiza police station since last September, as reported by the Policía Nacional in a statement.
So far, it has been ascertained that the sum of the amounts defrauded totals 58,000 euros. The investigation remains open and the search for new victims continues. The agents do not rule out further arrests.
The modus operandi carried out by the detainee consisted of posing as a real estate agent with an office in the town of Ibiza, which was always closed to the public, who published advertisements for the sale of homes on online real estate portals with very attractive prices, below others of similar homes, but with amounts that did not raise suspicions of being illegal.
He usually had access to these properties since he was a tenant of them and took advantage of this situation, he could show them freely, offering guarantees of being available for purchase to potential buyers.
Real estate scam: several visits on the same day
Within this dynamic, the false agent arranged visits to the property in question with the victims, concentrating several visits on the same days, a action that sought to place pressure on the interested parties and thus to force them to make a quick decision to buy, at which time he would ask them for a deposit to reserve the property and the formalization of a deposit contract, normally 5,000 euros.
Subsequently he sent documents of the house to the buyers and the deposit contract supposedly signed by the owner to continue the scam and prolong it in time, arranging new appointments, requesting new payments for these procedures, but making different excuses to never reach the signing of the sale, including sending the forged death certificates of the supposed seller.
As a result the man was arrested as the alleged perpetrator of five real estate scams.
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