Can Affinity Fraud manifest in other ways?
Sometimes Affinity Fraud can be promoted within a particular religious or community group not because of any direct involvement or links the perpetrator might have with that group specifically, but because of a particular relationship or role they might have with another similar group which still fosters that affinity. An example of this was a recent case heard in the Commercial and Consumer Tribunal in Queensland. This case involved a resale transaction scheme. It was designed to be a ‘deliberately manipulative’ scheme whereby a real estate agent (“the agent”) used several of his companies to take out options to purchase homes at the lower end of the market and then resold them to unsuspecting purchasers who were commercially naive at heavily inflated prices. In the end the purchasers became indebted to these companies as well as the bank (which was similarly deceived as to the market value of the property) for amounts far in excess of the market value of the properties whilst the age
