Hawaiian residents are being warned against a new wave of real estate investment scams, including one that pretends to include actor Jason Momoa.
Hawaii’s Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs issued a warning that the scams involve letters that are designed to look as if they were originated by government agencies that claimed to be working with a real estate investment company called “Welfare Estate.” These letters claim to offer investment opportunities in local properties, but no such properties exist.
“This tactic is part of a broader scheme aimed at misrepresenting government officials and agencies to validate the legitimacy of these scams to prospective buyers,” said the department’s warning, adding that “these scams are becoming increasingly common and reminds the public that the department does not engage in solicitation of any kind.”
Some of the scammers cited the involvement of Momoa, but the “Aquaman” star stepped forward to state his name and image were hijacked.
“It has come to my attention that scammers are using my name to promote fake real estate opportunities,” stated Momoa. “I want to assure everyone that I am not associated with these schemes and have no partnership with any real estate firms. Please remain cautious and verify any offers you receive. Stay informed and look out for one another. Mahalo.”
Photo: Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
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For the last 10 days real estate scams have been going crazy. Last Thursday & Saturday I received two calls from people posing as owners of raw land in Tennessee. They lived out of state and on tax record it shows owner living out of state. I asked for a copy of their drivers license and they sent DL, however the signatures were entirely different than what was on the deed. I finally got in touch with the real owners and let them know what was going on. Other land brokers are seeing the same scams. We had this problem in 2021 and the violators were caught. I’m getting calls from fake charities like never before in the last week. Apparently, the US is now known as a lawless country, where criminals are safe from prosecution