The state of Florida is stepping in to help buyers who were duped into buying worthless swampland in Florida on the online auction site, eBay.

Florida officials say "paper subdivisions" in places like Osceola, Polk, Volusia and Brevard counties contain land which is unsuitable for any construction, yet with names like University Highlands and Suburban Estates, buyers are paying thousands for the lots.

According to Florida's Sun-Sentinel, an acre-and-a-quarter lot - usually assessed at $600 to $1,200 - fetches 10 times that or more from unsuspecting buyers in Internet auctions. Florida officials estimate there are millions of these unlivable lots in every part of the state.

Robert Derogene, a Coral Springs mortgage broker who paid $46,500 for three acre-and-a-quarter lots at a paper subdivision called University Highlands in Volusia County tells the paper, "You cannot do anything with the land. A whole bunch of people were misled, and I didn't like that."

Now, Florida is catching and charging the sellers with fines, such as failing to register the land properly. As for the University Highlands, the seller had to refund 187 sales to avoid paying a $1.87 million fine.