Forest City: How a ghost town in Malaysia became a Trojan horse for scammers - BBC News

Malaysia's Forest City was pitched as "paradise" but last month police raided it over alleged scam operations.

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be played

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.