A South African scammer’sold’ the land an American doctor had held for more than two decades to real estate developers, shocking the doctor.

In Fairfield, Connecticut, Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg owned a piece of land adjacent to the house he grew up in. After his brother passed away in 2011, he became the only owner of the land, which he had bought in 1991.

He was dismayed to learn that a million-dollar house had been constructed on his property without his knowledge when he went home in 2023.

The New York doctor had declined multiple offers to purchase the land over his 20 years of ownership because he intended to pass it on to his family’s future generations.

However, Dr. Kenigsberg was perplexed to see a £1.2 million, four-bedroom mansion on his property when he returned to his hometown in 2023 to visit a close friend.

The landowner was understandably incensed after it was revealed that developers Sky Top Partners LLC had bought the property for about $350,000 (£270,000) from a South African impersonating Dr. Kenigsberg.

The scammer most likely forged his name and signed it in a “power of attorney,” which is the authority to sign legal documents on someone else’s behalf, according to consumer protection attorney Kevin Kneupper’s TikTok suggestions.

He said: “It’s really easy to go find who owns land. If you’ve never done searches on this, in most counties, you can actually just go, it depends on your state.”

“But in many places, you just search online, they’ll have databases, so they could find out real easily who’s the actual owner and then just pretend to be him.”

According to Patch, the con artist created a phony passport in his name with an inaccurate birthday and photo, established an address in Johannesburg, and evidently had enough information to persuade the real estate developers that they had the right man.

In the summer of 2023, Dr. Kenigsberg filed a lawsuit against the property builders, beginning a legal struggle that lasted for over a year before ending in April 2024.

Although the terms of the settlement have not been made public, it is believed that Dr. Kenigsberg, who currently resides in Long Island, received a payoff. The FBI allegedly hasn’t been able to solve the fraud case, which was first looked at by the Fairfield Police Department.

The property was sold last year for $1.45 million (£1.17 million), which gave Sky Top Partners a good ending even if they had fallen for the South African fraud, which probably cost them thousands of dollars in legal bills and the settlement.