Swampland in Florida is an allusion to real estate fraud in which the seller misrepresents a swamp that can not be used as a property that can be developed. This type of invisible property fraud became famous in the United States in the 20th century, and this phrase is often used metaphorically for any fraud that misrepresents what is being sold. An expression like "If you believe it, then I have a swamp in Florida to sell you", indicating that the recipient is quite gullible to fall for a clear fraud. Similar phrases involve the "sell" of the Brooklyn Bridge or the "ocean property in Arizona" that does not exist.
Video Swampland in Florida
The origin of the term
This phrase comes from public land bank fraud in the 1920s, when the "land mania" boom preceded the Great Depression. One of the original sellers of the swamp is Charles Ponzi.
A similar term originates in the early twentieth century where fraudsters will sell buildings that do not have a title like the Brooklyn Bridge for newly arrived immigrants in the United States. The gullible phrase refers to the event saying, "if you believe, I have a bridge to sell you." They evolved in the 1960s and 1970s to include the almost worthless sale of swamps in Florida.
Although the term is derived from the United States, the term is now also understood and used in other English-speaking countries.
Grant Oster points out that the invisible property fraud practices precede the existence of the United States. He pointed to the sale of Greenland colonization by Erik the Red, around 982, for example.
Maps Swampland in Florida
The actual value of the swamp
The general use of this term implies that the swamp is worthless. Without the development or ability to develop it, it is not valuable for real estate purposes. There are cases that swamps are bought and turned into very valuable properties, especially for the creation of Walt Disney World Resort and also to some extent including many developed countries in Florida. On the other hand, there are also arguments made for the value of scenery and wildlife found in swamps in their natural state. Sometimes businesses do to meet development permit requirements to conserve some Florida land to build on other Florida lands.
Fraudulent property sales fraud
Florida swamp scam
In the 1960s and 1970s, scammers used national advertising to lure victims to buy Florida real estate without first visiting its properties. This technique is mainly used by Gulf American Land Corp. in Cape Coral communities and Golden Gate Estates, Florida (where they were found guilty of fraud by the Florida Land Sales Board). It is a form of self-confidence. New owners come to find their land under water in the swamp or in other ways that are impossible to build. When fraud became widely known, California and New York lawmakers acted in 1963 to limit this false advertising. Florida also authorized an Installed Land Sales Act that year in an attempt to restore its reputation.
Swamp scams still occur in Florida. The Internet has brought a resurgence through Florida online real estate auctions. Scammers avoid commercial registration requirements by making one-on-one sales. Over long distances some buyers can be convinced to pay before verifying a claim. This usually involves an unbuilt swamp that is misunderstood as being able to be built to inflate the selling price by fraudulent.
Swampland in Arizona
A similar phrase, which replaced Florida with Arizona, is also used for the same reason. Because Arizona is famous for its dry climate, it is assumed that the wetlands in the state do not exist. The implication is that the target of humiliation is not only more gullible than someone who will buy a swamp in Florida, but also do not know. Another variation of the phrase is "ocean front property in Arizona", which does not exist because Arizona is a landlocked country. Country songwriter, George Strait, wrote the song with this variation as the title.
Desert desert scam
Recent land sales fraud has sold unreached desert land in Arizona and western Texas. Many are sold over the internet, and desert properties do not have access to water, no sewer service, and in most cases, are not accessible by road.
See also
-
- Economic bubble
- Florida land boom of the 1920s
- Property bubble
- The real estate economy
- Land banking fraud
- Picayune Strand State Forest
- in fiction
- Glengarry Glen Ross , a 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by David Mamet about unscrupulous sellers trying to sell a titular plot of Florida swampland that can not be built for unsuspecting clients. Then adapted into an Academy Award nominated film of the same name.
References
External links
- Florida Law Chapter 498: Land Sales Practices
- "$ 300,000" Swampland "Scam Leads to Arrest" in Florida's Attorney General State
- "Hernando Man Sentenced for Selling Swamplands to Floridians" at the State of Florida's Attorney General
- "I have a swamp in Florida to sell you" in Miami Beach 411
- "Apopka Lake: The New New Swampland Scam" on the Southwest Orlando blog
- "Beyond Disney World: Florida swamplands are something to be really admired and explored" in online travel magazine Poste Restante (via Internet Archive)
- Florida Land Scams (archives) - land fraud in Polk County, Florida
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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