Warning re land buying scams in the UK

I have just been reading about the people who have been ripped off by United Land Holdings and have now lost their money and would like to make people aware of other companies that are still out there trying to rip people off.

These types of companies basically sell you land in the UK that has little or no chances of getting planning permission. They spend money designing very nice websites, impressive marketing materials and name themselves after successful property companies to give them an air of legitimacy. One current example to be aware of is Crown Land Securities who are trying to play on the familairity that people have with "Land Securities' (one of the UK's biggest and most successful commercial property developers) and 'Crown Land' (which is the terms for land owned by the Queen). They then employ boiler room style tactics to try and get unwitting investors to pay over-inflated prices for agricultural land that they say wll increase in value but is actually that is worth much less than you've paid for it.

Please do not be taken in by any of these scammers and if in doubt seek professional advice.

Look out for similar in other markets, Fortuna Estates in Spain comes to mind -- probably legal, but cr*p investments that are going nowhere.