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Property Scammers

5,486 Views | 17 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by combat wombat™
Red Pear Felipe
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7:17a, 2/25/23
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I just recently received an email from the communication department of the Austin Board of Realtors (ABOR). The latest scam is people impersonating sellers.


Protect Against Property Scams



This is from the email that was sent to me.

Quote:
The latest scam affecting the public and real estate professionals involves criminals impersonating a seller who wishes to list a lot or vacant land. REALTORS in Texas and nationwide have reported this activity.


What should you watch out for?
  • Sellers who want to conduct the entire transaction virtually and do not want to meet "face to face" even by video call.
  • Sellers who are looking to sell their property fast, for cash, and/or below market value, especially if there are no liens on the property.
  • Photo IDs, such as driver's licenses or passports, that are barely legible.
  • Seller (or co-conspirator) that impersonates the notary and provides falsified documents to title company or closing attorney.

What can you do to protect yourself?
  • Conduct independent research on property ownership through the county land records and recent picture of the property seller.
  • Insist on meeting with the sellereither in person or by video call and to see their government issued identification.
  • Be on alert when a seller accepts an offer below market value in exchange for receiving the payment in cash and/or closing quickly.
  • Never allow a seller to arrange their own notary closing.
  • Insist on a known settlement company or attorney being involved in the transaction.
  • If something seems off, talk to your broker.

Sponsor Message: We Split Commissions. Full Service Agents in Austin, Bryan-College Station, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. Red Pear RealtyAustin Monthly
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Diggity
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8:45a, 2/25/23
AG
Yikes. Probably a lot of desperate agents out there right now due to the slow market and scammers are taking advantage.

Seems like something where using a reputable title company solves the issue but I'm sure the "sellers" insist on there own fee attorney title guy that's in on it.
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TresPuertas
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11:34a, 2/27/23
AG
Unfortunately this is Aggie related because the first case this happened to was my roommate from A&M. I can't say a lot but there was a lot of neglect on all sides and its amazing how this was done. It set off a nationwide alert from the title company handling the transaction and has been a S-storm since.

Stay frosty.
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CS78
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In reply to TresPuertas • 3:05p, 2/27/23
Did the title company catch it before sending funds?

Crazy thing is, for anyone to be able to conduct this scam, they need pretty good first hand experience executing legit transactions.
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TresPuertas
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In reply to CS78 • 3:25p, 2/27/23
AG
CS78 said:
Did the title company catch it before sending funds?

Crazy thing is, for anyone to be able to conduct this scam, they need pretty good first hand experience executing legit transactions.
Nope. Fully funded.

It's a wild story and they're still trying to gather details but so far it appears the massive neglect came from a lack of due diligence on the title side
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Unnecessary Deafness
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3:43p, 3/1/23
AG
I have seen this happening with people trying to rent homes that are listed for sale. My house in college station got posted on Craigslist and was a 3/2 nice college home. They were trying to rent it for $600/month for whole house. In the past were renting it for 2k+.

With a first and last months rent plus security deposit sent through Western Union. I happened to go back up there to check on the empty house and our for sale sign had been taken down multiple times.

Turned out the people that had thought they rented it were taking the for sale sign down. Calling the listing agent daily telling them to come get their sign it's their home now just waiting on keys in the mail. Listing agent almost backed out of selling the home because the calls were tying up their phone lines. I caught a family coming to see the house from the outside and luckily stopped them before sending the money. I explained to them that sometimes the price is too good to be true and should be a warning light after he asked me personally if I'd rent it at that price to him.

Ended up having to post signs all around the house saying that the Craigslist post was a scam and do not send them money. Took me almost a month and a half to get craigslist to remove the post.
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Drillbit4
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In reply to TresPuertas • 7:55p, 3/1/23
AG
So is the title company taking responsibility? Isn't that the entire reason for title insurance?
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TxAG#2011
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In reply to TresPuertas • 11:13p, 3/1/23
TresPuertas said:
Unfortunately this is Aggie related because the first case this happened to was my roommate from A&M. I can't say a lot but there was a lot of neglect on all sides and its amazing how this was done. It set off a nationwide alert from the title company handling the transaction and has been a S-storm since.

Stay frosty.


You can tell us how it was done. We don't need names addresses or companies.
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Red Pear Realty
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10:46a, 3/2/23
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From someone who has personally lost due diligence money to this scam, my preference would be that the methodology isn't explained on a public forum. While it is a sophisticated scam, its also replicatable. I've helped buy, sell, and develop over $7 billion in real estate, and this was not something that ever entered my mind as a possibility until this year. And the "sellers" broker in my deal was a very experienced agent with hundreds of deals under his belt.

I will say, this scam lends itself to vacant land. My deal was for a build for rent syndication in an area I'm very familiar with. The escrow officer at the title company said that she's done about 5,000 deals in her career and has only seen it about 5 times. Her take was that if we had closed, the title policy would have covered the buyer, and they would have sued the seller's broker to recover what they could from them. Seller's agents…know your clients.

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TresPuertas
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In reply to TxAG#2011 • 11:29a, 3/2/23
AG
TxAG#2011 said:
TresPuertas said:
Unfortunately this is Aggie related because the first case this happened to was my roommate from A&M. I can't say a lot but there was a lot of neglect on all sides and its amazing how this was done. It set off a nationwide alert from the title company handling the transaction and has been a S-storm since.

Stay frosty.


You can tell us how it was done. We don't need names addresses or companies.


so basically, my friends dad owned two vacant adjacent lots in Sachse and had owned them for years. Unfortunately he passed away about 6 years ago and since then the family had held the lots and paid the annual taxes on the properties until they decided what they wanted to do.

Fast forward to this year and his widow sends in the taxes and about 2 weeks later finds out the check has been returned because all taxes have been paid.

they get in touch with my sister in law who's an attorney and a fee attorney for a local title company and she does some digging and finds out that the properties had been sold by someone who was impersonating my friends deceased dad. we still don't know how they faked ids and got it through the title company, or if there was any sort of collusion, but it was apparently enough to send out a nationwide red alert for this.

a lot is still to be discovered and that's about all i can share, but it's a new kind of scam.
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Diggity
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In reply to TresPuertas • 11:33a, 3/2/23
AG
interesting.

I wish someone would sell the ****hole out from under the owner next door to me.

The lady moved out 3 years ago and is just leaving it to rot.
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CS78
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In reply to TresPuertas • 12:45p, 3/2/23
Ugh! Can you imagine if the buyers had already built a house on a property they didn't even own. Complete with a fat mortgage.

Sometimes I wonder if these people realize they could be just as successful putting that effort and skill into something legitimate.
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TxAG#2011
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3:57p, 3/2/23
Would it be that hard to get it through title? Not like they know you there. Fake IDs aren't hard to get either.
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Red Pear Realty
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4:34p, 3/2/23
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Please don't give folks any ideas
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Diggity
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9:43a, 11/8/23
AG
This sounds very similar to some of the scams described on this old thread.

Glad the dude got busted finally.

Quote:
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- An alleged mastermind behind a $15 million warranty deed scam in Harris County was arrested on Monday after a year-long investigation, according to deputies.
Timothy Willard is accused of forging the signature of at least three property owners, including his father, on their warranty deeds and purchasing their property at a drastically undervalued price.

Harris County Constable Precinct 1 deputies said Willard would then resale the properties under market value. Authorities said the properties involved were located throughout Houston and included River Oaks. At least three were valued at more than $15 million.


https://abc13.com/warranty-deed-scam-artist-arrest-15-million-timothy-willard/14022370/
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schwack schwack
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In reply to Unnecessary Deafness • 8:25a, 11/9/23
AG
We, too, have been having problems lately with our rental properties. People take our pics & offer them on facebook for lower - crazy lower. We now watermark our images with our website address + a disclaimer across every picture that we never require upfront money online before showing the property.

Luckily we have several friends that are admins on some of the local pages & they pretty much know our properties so things get taken down pretty fast. However, we've had people stop and tell us that they sent money for a deposit. We feel bad & sorry, but their money is gone.

You gave me a great idea - we're going to post a sign inside the front windows for the people that might be taken in by this.

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The Fife
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In reply to schwack schwack • 6:46a, 11/10/23
Unfortunately that's not a new thing at all. A dozen years ago I'd see mine on Craigslist for $500 lower than what the actual rent was. It was easy enough to get the ads pulled but kind of a hassle policing that stuff.
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combat wombat™
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In reply to CS78 • 7:02a, 11/10/23
AG
CS78 said:
Ugh! Can you imagine if the buyers had already built a house on a property they didn't even own. Complete with a fat mortgage.

Sometimes I wonder if these people realize they could be just as successful putting that effort and skill into something legitimate.


I read an article about this happening. I think it was in the NE. Owner lived out of town, went to check on the property one day to fine a house on it! Someone had impersonate him and sold his property.
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