These seaside apartments were a ghost city - then police say scammers moved in
Malaysia's Forest City, a massive $100 billion development, has become a hub for illegal scam operations after failing to attract residents. Police recently arrested over 300 people involved in cryptocurrency and love scams operating out of the vacant apartments.
Why it matters
The situation illustrates the failure of 'ghost city' mega-projects and how such underutilized infrastructure can be exploited by international criminal syndicates.
Figure caption, Scammers busted in Southeast Asia's biggest ghost town
From a distance, Malaysia's Forest City looks 3D-printed: a bristle of identical white blocks clustered on an otherwise unremarkable coastline.
When it was unveiled by Chinese developers in 2016, the $100bn mega-project was pitched as "a dream paradise for all mankind": a special financial zone that could house some 700,000 residents. But a decade later, this 14-sq-km (3,400-acre) artificial island on Singapore's doorstep is thought to be inhabited by less than 1% of that.
Rows of eerily vacant skyscrapers loom over quiet streets. Inside empty apartments, benchtops and windows are filmed with dust.
"In 2016 they described it here like the golden city; very, very beautiful," says Jason Deng, a 56-year-old investor who was among the first to buy in Forest City, paying "a lot of money" for five properties.
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