The most screwed-up thing I ever heard of...

[Walt34]

Not trying to hijack the thread...but just curious - were the West Africans selling them at "firesale" prices without any inspection/walk throughs because they needed the money in a pinch, or was it an extremely elaborate operation where they actually had access to let people walk through the house, etc.?

This goes back 20+ years and my memory is dim on the details, but they were in a depressed area of Baltimore and supposedly ~$20k "investment properties" so I doubt there were any walk-throughs. The transaction where the money changed hands occurred in the jurisdiction where I worked so that was where the theft happened.