[Anonymous]

Interesting article in the Daily Telegraph today about the personality traits that make some people more vulnerable to scams. I was surprised to learn the people who fall for scams tend to have a good background knowledge of the subject of the scam offer, and spend time analysing the offer before jumping in.

What’s this got to do with Spanish property? Well, let’s face it, there’s been no shortage of scams in the Spanish property sector. Many people have fallen for them. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the whole overseas property investment business was borderline scam (the aggressive investment operations, not those selling homes).

The article, for those interested:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/5344367/Do-you-have-a-scam-proof-personality.html

Mark

[Anonymous]

mark

when you consider the level of corruption from top to bottom it’s hard not to agree with ‘the scam’, though some would still much rather shift the blame to the victims, even though they followed the rule of the law.

[Anonymous]

Scams were often personally addressed to people or available for a limited time only, to make people think it was a unique or urgent opportunity; this reduced their motivation to look at it objectively.

How many property marketing ´opportunities´ does that remind you of?

[katy]

Firstly I have to say I am suprised that people actually get paid for coming out with that survey report 😆

It is fascinating why people do fall for scams. Also how nasty they can be if someone tries to warn them. I have a relative who is quite high up in banking and he bought a timeshare some years ago 😯 Try to point out the flaws in a scheme and you are accused of being negative!

I think the whole property investment market was a sort of pyramid scam. Chinless wonders in London buying a couple of properties to rent and speaking as if they were a blue chip company, it was the only thing that led the conversation at dinner parties. All those ads for spain buy off plan and flip for 30% profit…did no-one ever stop to think that there was only a small window for that! The canny investors were the developers, they were the only winners.

[mike]

@mark wrote:

I was surprised to learn the people who fall for scams tend to have a good background knowledge of the subject of the scam offer, and spend time analysing the offer before jumping in.

From the article

It added that a good background knowledge of the subject of a scam offer, such as previous investment experience, actually increased people’s risk of being a victim as it made them over confident.

So they weren’t that knowledgeable, they just got lucky and then thought they were clever. Fair enough, we all have an ego.

However:

The study also found that fraudsters abused people’s trust of authority by making a scam look like a legitimate offer from a reputable business or official institution.

Put on a nice suit and speak posh and you could probably sell anything to some people.

[Anonymous]

Katy: “warn them. I have a relative who is quite high up in banking and he bought a timeshare some years ago”

Sadly this is true. I had a friend of mine who wanted to buy in a particular development in Marbella. I knew the problems & his life style etc.

I warned him not to do. I found out through third parties that I was being accused of being jelous & since I had bought did not want others to buy.

Needless to say that not only he bought in the development but bought a place next to the main N route. Now cant afford to pay the mortgage or can sell due to the main road.

[Author]

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