Real Estate Scams Archives

April 24, 2024April 25, 2024

Now They’re Holding Titles for Ransom? Here’s How Real Estate Scammers Target Floridians (and the Rest of Us)

St. Johns County, which includes St. Augustine Beach, has plenty of attractive real estate. Just beware the trickster who holds a deed for ransom.

One of the seniors who lives in St. Johns sounded the alarm. Some shady firm told her to pay $20K to get her title back.

It’s a trend in which local “investment companies” (or run-of-the-mill fraud rings) take the title of a home hostage, for a payoff. Now, St. Johns County officials are warning the public about these real estate ransoms.

April 17, 2024April 25, 2024

Register of Deeds Blasts Crooks Who Steal Homes Out From Under Owners’ Funerals

The Register of Deeds of Shelby County, Tennessee recently took to a live television newscast to warn the public about scammers scouring funeral listings and obituaries. They’re looking for dead people whose homes they can steal.

They forge deeds. They record bogus title transfers.

Once they have control over their ill-gotten homes, criminals sell them, borrow against them, rent them out, and evict rightful owners.

March 25, 2024April 25, 2024

Now It’s the Deepfakes. Protect Deeds and Accounts From AI-Generated Imposters

Real estate transactions involve large money transfers. Creative swindlers love those. And now, progress in artificial intelligence (AI) brings new opportunities for real estate fraud.

Shady actors are using real people’s voice or image samples to create recordings and persuade buyers and sellers to respond to questions with key information. Then the scammers hijack the target’s accounts. That’s right. A new breed of AI-powered wire fraud can manipulate familiar voices and grab online pictures to create whole recordings — just to get at people’s funds.

Remaining in the dark is not an option. To keep transactions safe, what do we need to know?

January 24, 2024April 25, 2024

Guilty Pleas in Long Island: Heirs Recover Their Stolen Deeds

Two New Yorkers — and one is a former lawyer and a licensed notary — have pleaded guilty to deed fraud charges in New York. The charges involve first-degree scheming to defraud, and additional counts related to forging and filing false documents to take deceased people’s titles in Nassau and Queens.

A company run by one of the pair pleaded guilty, too — to possession of stolen property and multiple forgery charges. The implicated real estate business will have to pay a $100,000 fine, and repay rents on the stolen properties. The other member of the pair, a landscaper, could be sentenced to a prison term of up to three years on January 30, 2024.

One of the would-be victims blew the whistle. As reported in the New York Daily News, she got a bad feeling about one of the pair. He walked into a coffee shop to meet her wearing a crumpled suit.

An investigation began. The outcome? The D.A. in Queens, Melinda Katz, announced that the Queens Supreme Court has voided the faked deeds. The ripped-off families are now able to recover their assets.

August 28, 2023April 25, 2024

Look Out for These Bizarre Real Estate Listing Scams

Nationwide, real estate scams siphon hundreds of millions of hard-earned dollars into the accounts of fraudsters. Some new and unusual scams can fool real estate professionals.

Consider the use of AI by cutting-edge scammers. As the news show 60 Minutes recently noted, hackers now use artificial intelligence to copy someone’s voice, and have access to apps that change what comes up on a caller ID.

Here are a few hallmarks of scams that every home seeker or home lister should know. Keep in mind that tech-savvy scammers make these sneaky ploys all the harder to avoid or trace.

March 13, 2023April 25, 2024

In the News: Struggling and Elderly Homeowners Targeted by Deed Fakery

Imagine a licensed real estate broker — of all people — accused of taking other people’s homes and selling them.

Imagine someone deciding to fake a deed to steal the house of an elderly homeowner who’s ill and in a nursing home.

These are both real stories, now unfolding in Florida.

November 7, 2022April 25, 2024

Using a Quitclaim Deed: What Are the Drawbacks?

A quitclaim deed is a simple form that transfers a piece of real estate from one person to another. Any homeowner can fill out a quitclaim deed with their name and the name of the recipient, and the property’s existing legal description, sign it in front of a notary and record the document. That effectively and quickly passes a property on. No wonder these forms mistakenly get called “quick claim” deeds.

Yet quitclaims are not a good pick for most property conveyances. Read on to learn more.