Faking and Entering: When the Luxury Home “Buyer” is an Imposter

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You knew it had to happen -- combine a culture that worships wealth and celebrity with over-the-top luxury real estate listings splashed all over the internet, and it was inevitable that People Who Can’t Afford That House would want to walk into $12 million open houses and be taken seriously.

The new business magazine Portfolio calls it ‘Faking and Entering.’ Here’s a snip: ‘In his 11 years as a Los Angeles-based broker, Mauricio Umansky, of Hilton & Hyland, has seen everything from a celebrity stalker who posed as Adnan Khashoggi to a buyer who claimed he was British royalty. ... Then there was a buyer who, claiming to be heir to a Chinese tobacco empire, “spent” $75 million on three of Umansky’s listings in a single afternoon—only to con another broker out of $5,000 before disappearing.’