I can see them using this obscene price gouging as a way to trick people into accepting a lower price, regardless of how ludicrously expensive it still is. Shady salesmen do this all the time, initially state a ridiculous price that no one would bother with, like, oh, 300,000,000+ for a plot of land, then lower it to around 100,000,000. It's still a hefty sum of cash, but now the sucker has the mindset of, "Wow, that's over half off, I haggled the shit out of this guy."

Scam artist gets the price range he really wanted, and the sucker leaves thinking he got a good deal.