"These transactions, conducted under the name of fake real estate companies and law firms, identify people interested in selling their properties and time sharing vacations via the Internet, and then contact them to negotiate the sale," the Central Bank says.

In a statement posted on its Web site the entity said the swindlers obtain personal data from the proprietors who send the money through Dominican banks or money transfer companies to pay the taxes Dominican law requires, by telling them that the sale won’t advance until the money is received.

"Once the demanded money is sent the swindlers tell the owner that the person who received the money has disappeared and that the authorities are trying to locate them, but the process takes time for which they must send more money to conclude the process already begun," the warning says.