My Friend asked to borrow $80k to recover her childhood home in Vietnam.

Hi, everyone. Any help would be very much appreciated.

My friend recently told me that she needed $80k USD ASAP. Apparently, a family member in Vietnam created a fake title for her childhood home and got a loan from the bank against the home. He has now defaulted on the loan. She believes she can sell the home for $300k (A developer has been buying up property in that neighborhood, and they…or someone…told her that if she sells, they can close in a week for $300k). Problem is no one knows where the real title is. She is in the US. Her sister from New York is in Vietnam right now trying to facilitate all this. She needs $80k to pay the bank loan and then the bank will be able to create a new title(?)! I said I needed more info. Like any paperwork from the bank or the builder. She says she can’t provide it. That business in Vietnam is done differently.

I only understand business in the US. I would expect that if you lose a title, you go to some government office and pay for a new copy. She told me they can’t get the government involved or she would end up having to bribe an official?

She is in panic mode. Does anyone here know of this particular scam? Maybe I’m wrong.

Edit- thank you for your responses. I’m working through them. We are on a long drive under poor snowy conditions. But I saw that I should mention this is a good family friend. She has a very gentle heart. And she’s been known to make poor financial decisions. I’m not giving her money. But I wanted input maybe about how this is a known scam or points on what I can further say to convince her to take the $20k loss and if the house is gone, then so be it. She does not have unlimited funds.

Final Edit- Thank you everyone for your concern and advice. I’ve read through all the comments. I still don’t know how to frame things so that she understands it’s a scam. My Viet is not as good as to explain financial things, and when I talked to her yesterday, she got defensive. She knows I don’t have that money now. And fortunately, her credit is poor bc of repeated late payments, so she has been so far unable to obtain a loan for the $80k. Maybe in the end, her poor credit will save her.

She is not scammer. She is being scammed, and I don’t know what else to do to help her see this.

Thanks for your guys’ time.