A grown-ass adult real estate agent from Melbourne got scammed out of $30,000 by a 17-year-old student, officially making this kid my greatest hero. Remember folks, crime doesn’t pay — and there’s no greater crime than being a real estate agent.
To anyone out there who has spent any amount of time waiting for a real estate agent to contact the landlord about an important fix, or had them show no empathy when raising your rent, or even had them sell you an absolute dump like this renter did, then you’re about to find this story extremely cathartic.
By the way, we do not endorse the actions committed by the scam artist in this story, and condemn their behaviour.
Same goes for the 17-year-old too.
How a real estate agent got scammed $30K by a kid
You know those wankers that spend more money on shoes than you do on rent/food/education? Well surprise surprise, the real estate agent victim in this story is one of THOSE GUYS. In case you needed more reason to laugh at their pain.
So the real estate agent, let’s call them Hugh Janus, wanted to buy themselves a pair of rare Dior X Air Jordan sneakers, estimated to cost upward of AUD $10K, which is a totally reasonable thing to spend on a shoe during the cost of living crisis. Yes, I am judging them harder because they’re a real estate agent.
These shoes were so rare that they were sold via a raffle, with only one per customer, which Janus missed out on.
Fortunately for Janus, the student came to the rescue, claiming to have “a system with some international associates” that meant they could get the shoes to them, for a hugely discounted price.
So Janus did what any rational adult would do, and paid the student $3.8K for the Dior X Air Jordan kicks.
But just like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Janus didn’t stop there. Janus wanted more, so more he bought, including:
- Three more pairs of Dior X Air Jordans for $4.8K, $6.7K, and $10K.
- A pair of Bred Air Jordan 1’s for $2,690.
- A pair of Chicago Air Jordan 1’s for $2,690
- And a pair of Royal Air Jordan 1’s for $2,690.
Coming in to a grand total of $33,370 AUD, on a bunch of really rare sneakers.
BTW, these are the people who say that if you can’t afford to pay rent, you shouldn’t buy avocado toast.
However upon the arrival of the shoes, Janus noticed a problem.
They didn’t seem like they were worth thousands of dollars. And not in the sense that most people would have immediately thought this, but in the sense that the shoes were FAKE.
Janus accused the student — who has since turned 18 — of selling them “defect” shoes that were “unauthentic” counterfeits.
The student’s father then stepped in and took the shoes to a sneaker authenticator, who confirmed that the shoes were fake.
However the father disputed the authenticity of the authenticator — low-key hating everyone in this story now — when they claimed that the student “was a fraudster and a scam artist who had been blacklisted” by many stores.
The father then allegedly offered Janus $10K in compensation, but Janus rejected him and took the student to court instead.
All of these disputes were then heard by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) who had to decide on who deserved repayment for being the victim of fraud.
And as a result of hearing all this back and forth yada-yada over a bunch of shoes, VCAT member Katherine Metcalf found that Janus was NOT entitled to a refund from anyone, due to the fact that the student was under the age of 18 when they made their trade, and that minors do “not have full capacity to enter into contracts”.
“Had the agreement been entered into when the student was 18 years old the result might have been different,” stated Metcalf.
Ironically she noted that usually these laws are made to protect minors from adults, but in this case it was “not the minor who needs protection, but rather the people with whom he chose to do business.”
Won’t lie, the student sounds like a total fraudster.
I wish him all the best for his future in the real-estate industry.
