''Swampland in Florida'' is a

figure of speech A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from ordinary language use in order to produce a rhetorical effect. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into '' schemes,'' which vary the ordinary ...

referring to real estate

scam A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers hav ...

s in which a seller misrepresents unusable swampland as developable property. These types of unseen property scams became widely known in the United States in the 20th century, and the phrase is often used metaphorically for any scam that misrepresents what is being sold. Expressions like "If you believe that, then I have swampland in Florida to sell you", suggests the recipient is gullible enough to fall for an obvious fraud. Similar phrases involve "selling" the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East Rive ...

or nonexistent "oceanfront property in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Etymology

The phrase originates from the common

land banking Land banking is the practice of aggregating parcels of land for future sale or development. While in many countries ''land banking'' may refer to various private real estate investment schemes, in the United States it refers to the establishme ...

scams of the 1920s, when booming "land mania" preceded the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. One of the original sellers of swampland was

Charles Ponzi Charles Ponzi (, ; born Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi; March 3, 1882 – January 15, 1949) was an Italian swindler and con artist who operated in the U.S. and Canada. His aliases included ''Charles Ponci'', ''Carlo'', and ''Cha ...

. Similar terms came from the early 20th century where

con-men A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust (emotion), trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, Moral responsibility, irresponsib ...

would sell landmarks to which no one owns the title such as the

to newly arrived immigrants in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The phrase about gullibility referring to those events said, " if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you." Those evolved in the 1960s and 1970s to include fraudulent sales of near-worthless swampland real estate in Florida. Though the term originates in the United States, it is now also understood and used in other English-speaking countries. Grant Oster points out that the practice of the unseen property scam predates the existence of the United States. He points to

Erik the Red Erik Thorvaldsson (), known as Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair ...

's sale of colonization of

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland ...

, circa 982, as an example.

Actual value of swampland

The common usage of this term implies that

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

land is worthless. Without development or some ability to develop it, it is not valuable for real estate purposes. There have been cases that swampland was purchased and turned into very valuable property, notably for the creation of

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

and also to some extent including many developed lands in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. Sometimes that is done by businesses to meet a development permit requirement to preserve some Florida land in order to build on other Florida land.

Unseen property sale scams

Florida swampland scams

In the 1960s and 1970s, scammers used nationwide advertising to lure victims to buy Florida real estate without visiting the properties first. This technique was used notably by the

Gulf American Land Corporation Gulf American Land Corporation (GALC) was a land development company in Florida founded by brothers Leonard and Jack Rosen. During the late 1950s and 1960s, GALC was the largest land sales company in the United States. The company is noted for its r ...

in the communities of

Cape Coral Cape Coral is a city located in Lee County, Florida, United States, on the Gulf of Mexico. Founded in 1957 and developed as a planned community, the city's population has grown to 194,016 as of the 2020 Census, a rise of 26% from the 2010 Census ...

and Golden Gate Estates, Florida (for which they were found guilty of fraud by the Florida Land Sales Board). It was a form of

confidence trick A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers h ...

. The new owners came to find their land was underwater in a swamp or in some other way impossible to build upon. As the scam became widely known, California and New York legislators acted in 1963 to restrict this

false advertising False advertising is defined as the act of publishing, transmitting, or otherwise publicly circulating an advertisement containing a false claim, or statement, made intentionally (or recklessly) to promote the sale of property, goods, or servic ...

. Florida also enacted the Installment Land Sales Act that year in an effort to restore its reputation. Swampland scams still occur in Florida. The Internet has brought about a resurgence via online auctions of Florida real estate. Scammers circumvent commercial registration requirements by making one-on-one sales. Over great distances some buyers can be convinced to pay before verifying claims. It usually involves unbuildable swampland misrepresented as buildable to fraudulently inflate the sale price.

Swampland in Arizona

A similar phrase, which replaces the Florida with

, is also used for the same reasons. As Arizona is well known to have an arid climate, it is assumed that wetlands in that state are non-existent (though several exist within the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests ). The implication is that the target of the insult is not only more gullible than someone who would buy swampland in Florida, but also ignorant. Another variation of the phrase is "oceanfront property in Arizona", of which none exists because Arizona is a landlocked state. Country songwriter

George Strait George Harvey Strait Sr. (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. Strait is considered one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. In the 1980s, he was credited for ...

released an album ''

Ocean Front Property ''Ocean Front Property'' is the seventh studio album by American country music artist George Strait, released on January 12, 1987, by MCA Records. It is certified 2× Multi-platinum by the RIAA. It is the first album to debut at #1 on the Billboar ...

'' with this variation as its title.

Desert land scams

Recent land sale scams have been sale of inaccessible desert land in Arizona and

west Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betw ...

. The lots are sold over the Internet, and are desert properties have no access to water, no sewer service, and in many cases, are not accessible by road.Haya El Nasse
"Old-fashioned land scams go high-tech"
9/26/2006, USA TODAY (accessed 26 Sept. 2016).

References

External links

Florida Law Chapter 498: Land Sales Practices

"Beyond Disney World: Florida's swamp land is something to be truly admired and explored"
at Poste Restante online travel magazine (via Internet Archive)
Florida Land Scams
(archive) – land scams in Polk County, Florida {{Scams and confidence tricks English-language slang English phrases Deception Fraud in the United States Symbols of Florida Swamps of Florida Real estate in the United States Confidence tricks