DAVAO CITY — A lady land scammer who victimized a handful of would-be land owners was arrested by the Davao City Operations Group on Wednesday in an entrapment operation.
City Police Director Kirby John Kraft identified the suspect as Eva Salmagrande, a resident of Davao City.
She was was arrested after receiving marked money from an asset who pretended as land buyer.
Just minutes after her arrest, at least three victims surfaced at the DCPO and claimed Salmagrande duped them cash for a property she was selling but it turned out she does not own it.
A certain Cheche, said she already paid P200,000 for a property in Talomo district but when the suspect asked for full payment, she discovered that the property she was paying does not exist.
Angelina, another victim claimed, they already paid P3-million for a property but the land title has been loaned.
A former staff of Salmagrande also showed up to the police station and revealed the modus of the suspect.
Davao City Spokesperson PCapt. Rose Aguilar told Newsline.ph that the police was informed by the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development about the activities of Salmagrande which prompted the police to conduct an entrapment operation.
Aguilar said the suspect offers a joint venture agreement with the land owner to subdivide the property and sell the same.
But all the contributions received by the suspect were not remitted to the land owners. prompting landowners to refuse construction of houses since no payment was made.
In some cases, the suspect reportedly sell properties which do no exists.