A Series of Unfortunate Frauds Pt. 2

Within a week, the adult daughter of my deceased neighbor informed me that they had sold the house.  Cash. Well, it obviously wasn't a family.  The really strange part was the phone call I got later, from Ms. North Carolina.  She starts telling me how awful and unfair it all was.  She had wanted to buy that house and now a developer had taken it from her. I asked her incredulously "You made an offer on the house next door?" I had specifically told her that the kids didn't want to sell.  "Oh yes, and I thought they were going to take my offer but someone made a higher offer".  whine and sniff.  But her story was so bad, you could drive a truck through the holes.  First she was harassing the elderly in the hospital.  Now she was calling and making offers to people that weren't even supposed to be interested in selling.  And why was she spending so much time whining to me? She was definitely lying to me about her true interest.  I saw my neighbor across the street, Mr. Local Bachelor, and we chatted in his yard one morning.  He was mad about the way the sale of the house went down.  I didn't say anything. I wanted to hear what Local Bachelor knew.  LB was upset that the house would be bull dozed.  He had talked to one of the kids (they had all grown up together).  One of the sons was anxious for some cash, so he was pushing the others to sell.  Then he said "They have been played by these people.  They have two women that ride their bikes and walk around pretending to be new to the area looking for a house. Then people call them and start making all of these offers on the phone, but they aren't real offers, none of them are in writing. Then the developer calls and makes it look like he's the highest offer.  I keep telling the son they are being cheated. That lot is worth much more than they are getting. He won't listen to me. He's bought the bull sh#t hook, line, and sinker.  It's a shame." Holy Crap! It is a shame.  The Son had told me that the phone was ringing off the hook, but whose to say that it wasn't intentional to make it look like they were getting a lot of interest? What if one person (or group) was putting on a show? That would explain Ms. Carolina's behavior too.  She was calling to see what I knew and cover her tracks.  She's was trying to look like a victim when in reality, she was doing the dirty work.  I was disgusted with the whole thing. The developer debate had been going on as long as i have lived here, but finding out how they really operated  was leaving a bad taste in my mouth.  It was looking like a dirty deed done dirt cheap.