A Swedish woman was the victim of a real estate scam in the town of Mijas, located in the province of Malaga, on the southern coast of Spain, after discovering last December that the house she lived in had been sold without her knowledge. The property had originally cost her some 345,000 dollars (approximately 320,000 euros).
The Swedish citizen, is one more of the foreigners who wish to visit Spain and Andalusia for a good vacation, but unfortunately falls into a scam and real estate fraud. The police intervened to solve the problem as soon as possible. In this way you will learn about the new situation related to real estate fraud that is affecting many tourists. Feel free to read on for the whole story.
The exact moment he found out about the situation
She only found out about the situation during the Christmas vacations, when she returned to Spain and found new occupants living in the apartment. It turns out that the property was sold using a forged power of attorney, and she had never signed any document authorizing the sale.
On many occasions when returning home after being away on vacation or for work reasons, the last thing we expect is for someone to occupy our home and it is impossible to enter as normally as we would expect. Also, in many occasions for the process of the occupants, it is carried out a documentation that is not true and that is usually falsified in the crimes of real estate nature, in which the criminals take the documents and make them a lot of changes to be able to later be able to become owners of other people’s houses.
The problem of the absence of the owner and the danger that it entails
It should be emphasized that the fact that the Zürich citizen was not at home, and was not at home at the time of the fraud, exposes in a very direct way the risk to which homeowners who are not in the original country of origin of the residence and who cannot supervise their properties first hand are exposed. In many cases, emergency and security services are hired, but even so, it is often difficult to solve these problems in a close, fast and efficient manner.
How it all started: a home burglary in September
The scam apparently began with a home burglary in September. The thieves stole several items from the house, including personal documents, which were subsequently used to forge the power of attorney, according to news site Fuengirola.fi (a local media outlet covering the Costa del Sol area).
Also, although this case is an individual one, the crimes can also be related and how frauds can lead to problems that are much more difficult to manage if you are at a distance.
The investigation was carried out by the Spanish police force.
The Civil Guard is investigating the case after verifying that forged documents were used to carry out the real estate fraud. According to the same source, the stress and anxiety caused by the situation forced the woman to receive medical attention in a hospital.
The victim, apart from all the legal and economic problems that have arisen, the psychological repercussion also has to be mentioned, as it was a big direct blow to her security in the Andalusian city. The loss of the home in a fraudulent way affects the way in which the tourist will make his life in our country, since these situations in which the quality of life and security are exposed, gives rise to many to back out and do not see our country as a tourist destination for disconnection and relaxation throughout the year.