THE 3-D (LACK OF) PRINCIPLE

They are vultures, not investors.

It's enough to make your skin scrawl. A property investor proudly proclaiming her "technique" for making a fortune in real estate - one that involves preying on people down on their luck.

Brisbane property trader Karen Murphy calls it the 3-D principle. The three Ds are "dead, divorced and desperate".

You find properties for sale because of a death, a marriage breakup or other adverse change in circumstances, such as a business failure or a car accident causing disability (which may force the sale of a home not designed for someone in a wheelchair). You make a killing by buying the properties for less than their true market value.

Karen is so proud of her technique that she agreed to pose for a newspaper with smiling photo and a headline which read: "Winning formula for buying and selling property."

She told readers: "I look for your worst nightmare - the dead, divorced and desperate."

It's the kind of approach taught at get-rich-quick seminars by quacks who lack any kind of ethical centre. It's the kind of approach that requires people to scour death notices in the newspaper, then follow up with a phone call to the bereaved - often an elderly person whose lifetime marriage partner has just died.

It's the kind of approach that should sicken every decent Australian.

Anyone who pursues the 3-D principle is displaying a three-dimensional lack of principle - they're acting out of greedy self-interest, they're exploiting the weak and vulnerable, and they're showing a callous disregard for common decency.

They're vultures, not investors.

To make a bad situation worse, Karen justifies her actions with this rationale: "I see it as helping them out, as there is always someone who wants their money."

That's right - by ripping them off, you're actually doing them a favour. It's the last refuge of every scoundrel involved in a scam: If I don't do it, someone else will.

The Three Ds in reality stand for daylight robbery, delusion and damage. They're stealing from people in desperate situations, they're deluding themselves that they're doing a good deed and they're causing financial and emotional damage to their victims.

It's troubling that a newspaper would give this headline-and-picture treatment, describing it as a "winning formula". They should be damning it for the loathsome, contemptible practice that it is.

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