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  • Geebo 9:00 am on March 2, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , land scam, real estate, ,   

    Scammers will sell the land out from under you 

    Scammers will sell the land out from under you

    By Greg Collier

    There are any told number of real estate scams. The most common one has to be the rental scam. This is when scammers will advertise a home for rent even though they don’t own the property. This is done so the scammer can obtain money from their victims in the guise of rent or deposits. The rental scam has led to many families being left homeless after losing the last of their money to the scammer.

    More recently, there has been a new real estate scam that’s making the rounds. It’s not as common as the rental scam, but its victims could still suffer from devastating financial effects. Real estate scammers are now targeting vacant lots. It doesn’t matter whether the lot is for sale or not, scammers will try to sell it as if they own it. This could lead to not only the buyer being swindled out of thousands of dollars, but it could also leave legitimate owners with a nightmare of a legal battle.

    So, how are scammers getting away with this? Not to give them any credit, but they’re really putting in the work on this one. When the scammers find a vacant property with no construction on it, they’ll find out who the owner is. This can be found out through publicly available information. The scammers will steal the identity of the owner and forge identification in the owner’s name. This way, the scammers can list the property for sale with a realtor while appearing to be the owner. Often, the scammers won’t even be in the same area as the lot or the realtor, and will typically communicate through means like emails and text messages.

    There were two reported incidents of this scam happening this week. One happened in New Orleans before the owner was notified by a friend. The other happened in the Washington, DC area, where the buyers realized it was a scam after the seller was unable to answer questions about the property.

    To protect yourself, it’s recommended for buyers to get title insurance. This protects buyers from losing money in a phony sale. For owner’s it’s not so easy. In their case, they have to trust that the local realtors do enough research, so they won’t list a lot for sale that isn’t.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on February 24, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , real estate, ,   

    Don’t use CashApp for rental deposits 

    Don't use CashApp for rental deposits

    By Greg Collier

    Yesterday, we discussed one of the oldest scams that plagues online marketplaces. That was the used car scam. Today, we’ll be discussing the one scam which has been appearing on online marketplaces even longer, the rental scam. Since the dawn of online classifieds, scammers have been renting properties that don’t even own to unsuspecting victims.

    For a little context, in the early days, scammers would list a home for rent on sites like craigslist. The listed rent price would be well below market value to entice anyone in the market for a new home. When the prospective renter would ask to inspect the home, a popular answer the scammers would give is that they’re missionaries who are currently working overseas. The scammer would then promise the renters they would send them the keys to the home once they received the security deposit payment that was typically sent by money transfer. Once the payment was sent, the supposed landlords would disappear with the victim’s money.

    Technology has advanced since those days, but the scam has stayed relatively the same. A Missouri woman was looking for a new home when she found a three bedroom, two-bath house with a little garage on Facebook Marketplace. The rent was listed as $800 a month. We checked the local real estate listings for the area. While there are homes and apartments with 3 bedrooms, you can get for close to that amount. However, they only had one bathroom. 3 bedroom homes with two bathrooms are going for twice that much.

    Anyway, the woman messaged the seller and the seller said that the home could be had if the woman paid first and last month’s rent. Under the direction of the seller, the woman sent the $1600 through Cash App. While the woman was waiting for the keys to be delivered, she drove past what she thought was her new home. Instead, what she saw was a for sale sign in front of the home. She called the realtor listed on the sign, and she was told the home wasn’t for rent.

    The woman attempted to get her money back from Cash App, but her request was denied as the scammer refused to give the money back.

    As we always say, payment apps like Cash App were designed to be used only between friends and family. If someone sends money through Cash App to someone they don’t personally, there’s a good chance they could be scammed.

    Now, we have heard of landlords who accept rent payments through Cash App. That’s fine if you’ve already moved in, established a relationship with your landlord, and are comfortable paying your rent that way. However, it should never be used to send any kind of rental deposit or application fee.

    Before agreeing to any kind of rental arrangement, make sure you’re dealing with the actual landlord. Do a Google search of the address and make sure there are no other listings for that property under different rental agency names or listings with a higher rent price. If the listing you’re looking at has a lower rent price and is being rented by ‘a guy’. There’s a good chance that you’re looking at the scam listing.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on February 13, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , real estate,   

    Deed scam tries to scare homeowners 

    By Greg Collier

    Homeowners in the Nashville, Tennessee area have been receiving some disturbing letters in the mail recently. Just imagine receiving a letter in the mail that says the deed to your property has been transferred to someone else and the transfer has been recorded with your county’s deeds office. Thankfully, the letters are part of a scam, but they’re designed to get the homeowner to panic.

    The letters appear to come from the local County Register of Deeds office. They go on to state the homeowner can obtain a copy of the supposed new deed by paying a fee to a supposed service in Florida. So, not only are the scammers hoping on getting an $89 payment from their victims, but if a victim pays by debit or credit card, the scammers will have their financial information as well.

    This scam preys on the fear of another scam where people have lost ownership of their own homes. Previously, some homeowners have been tricked into signing over the deed to their homes to a scammer. The scammer tells them they can avoid being foreclosed on if they sign the deed over to a third party. This typically results in the homeowner being evicted from their home by the scammers.

    In a similar scam, scammers have sent phony tax forms to homeowners asking them to fill the forms out. The scammers then use the information taken from these forms to try to get the deed reassigned to the scammer.

    If you receive a letter like this, the first thing you should do is contact your county deeds office to see if there is any legitimacy to the letter. In some counties, including Tennessee’s Davidson County, where you can sign up for property alerts. This way you can be notified if any action is being taken against your property.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 30, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , real estate, ,   

    Victim evicted after rental scam 

    By Greg Collier

    A man from Durham, North Carolina, says that he is homeless after falling victim to a rental scam. The man is said to have found a listing for a house for rent that had three bedrooms and two baths that was listed for a reasonable rent.

    The man was even able to tour the home after being given the code to the lockbox that contained a key to the home. The man exchanged several text messages with the person he thought was the landlord. He was eventually given a lease and was asked to pay the deposit in Bitcoin.

    The person he was texting with gave the man step-by-step instructions on how to deposit the money into a Bitcoin ATM. The texts even included a QR code for the man to use when making the deposit. The man ended up sending $2100 as a deposit.

    Not too long after the payment was made, the man discovered he had been scammed. After losing his money, he no longer had money to pay the rent at his current home, and was evicted. He recently told his local media he’s currently homeless after being evicted.

    According to the local news, there was a sign inside the home warning anyone touring the property to watch out for scams. However, scammers usually explain that away pretty successfully. Typically, they’ll tell their victims that they had listed the home with a rental agency, but are now renting it out themselves.

    The way scammers are able to access the property’s lockbox us by posing as a prospective tenant to the rental agency. This way they’re able to obtain the code to the lockbox, since some agencies don’t change the lockbox code as long as the property is listed.

    If you’re ever looking to rent a property and a supposed landlord asks you to pay in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, the odds are likely you’re about to be scammed. In layman’s terms, cryptocurrencies ate virtually untraceable and are near impossible to reclaim once money has been transferred.

    When looking for a home to rent, always do a web search on the home’s address. Look to see if there are multiple listings for the same address. If there are, look at the listings for a rental agency or a property management company. Those are typically the legitimate listings. And if the multiple listings have different rent prices, the lower one is almost guaranteed to be a scam.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 16, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: real estate, , ,   

    Even with agents, property buyers can still be scammed 

    By Greg Collier

    A Durham, North Carolina man loved his home and loved the trees that loomed over his backyard. He wanted to keep the trees standing, but he didn’t own the property the trees stood on. He always thought that if that property became available, he would love to buy it. Recently, the man received a text from a neighbor of his who saw that the property was being listed for sale. The man contacted his real estate agent to help with the purchasing process.

    The man’s real estate agent dealt with the property’s listing agent, which was in nearby Chapel Hill. The listing agent instructed the man to wire $10,000 to the owner of the property, who just happened to be in Vietnam. The Durham man even questioned the method of payment, but was assured by the listing agent that this was appropriate. They closed on the property after another $20,000 was wired overseas. The closing document stated that the owner was now in South Africa.

    About a month after the deal closed, the man received a phone call from his agent telling him that the deal was a fraud. The people the listing agent were dealing with were not the owners of the property, but scammers. The man’s agent informed him that he would be getting his money back, but only received $19,000. The listing agent ended up paying the remainder back to the man out of their own expenses.

    Even professionals can be taken in by scammers. In this case, the listing agent did not verify if they were talking to the actual owners of the property. That’s not to say there weren’t red flags. Anytime when dealing with real estate, and you’re asked to wire money overseas, it’s time to step back and assess the situation. In this instance, the agent’s insurance was able to cover the man’s loss, but in most situations that money would be gone forever.

    When buying a property, insist on going through the traditional closing methods if you’re asked to wire money. If the sellers refuse, there’s a good chance you’re dealing with a scammer.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 10, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , real estate, , ,   

    Rental scammers get more creative 

    By Greg Collier

    Scams can almost be considered living organisms unto themselves. They constantly adapt and evolve, so they can survive and multiply. Take the rental scam for example. Not too long ago, rental scammers would just claim that they were the landlords to a property but couldn’t be there in person since they were doing missionary work overseas. They would then have their victims send payment through money transfer services. Then consumers started catching on to the scam. From there, the rental scam has branched off into an untold number of scams with different methodologies designed to extract the maximum amount of money from their victims.

    In Blount County, Tennessee, the Sheriff’s Office is warning its residents about a rental scam that took place through Facebook Marketplace. The victim found a home for rent on Marketplace. The victim also saw that the home was listed as for rent on Zillow. Rather than contacting the realtor listed on Zillow, the victim went back to Marketplace and responded to the scammer.

    The scammer even went as far as to set up a walkthrough for their victim using the realtor listed on Zillow. But again, the victim kept going back to the Marketplace scammer where they were instructed to send a $1000 deposit through a Bitcoin ATM.

    The victim probably kept going back to the Marketplace scammer because the Marketplace listing had a lower rent in that listing. If there are two listings for the same property that have differing rent amounts, the listing with the lower amount is almost guaranteed to be a scam listing. Prospective renters should also avoid sending deposits through nontraditional means like cryptocurrency or payment apps like Venmo and Zelle.

    Selecting a new home should never be a rash decision because of what may look like a good deal. When dealing with multiple listings for the same property, the one being shown through a realtor rather than some stranger off the internet is probably the valid one. When in doubt, you can always check with the county’s tax office or website that can provide you the correct information about who owns the property.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on December 29, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: real estate, ,   

    $200K property almost sold out from under owner 

    $200K property almost sold out from under owner

    By Greg Collier

    A man from Raleigh, North Carolina almost had a $200,000 plot of land he owns sold out from under him. The man has owned the property since the 1980s, so he’s probably not in the market to sell it. You may imagine his surprise when he received a message from a realtor, asking him if he was selling the property.

    The realtor contacted the owner because the realtor had been contacted by someone claiming to be the owner. The impostor was even said to have presented a North Carolina driver’s license in the owner’s name. The reason the realtor contacted the true owner of the property was because the impostor’s story didn’t add up. The impostor allegedly said he was selling the property because he needed quick cash to buy a home in Michigan.

    However, that apparently didn’t stop the scammer, as they were able to convince another realtor to list the property on Zillow. A listing on Zillow with a realtor’s name behind it makes the listing look as legitimate as possible. That realtor even started receiving offers for the property. Thankfully, the owner got the realtor to take down the listing.

    If a fraudulent sale had gone through, it could have been a legal nightmare for the owner. Even though the man can show proof that he is, in fact, the owner of the property, there could have been a long and drawn out legal battle to evict anyone who may have moved on to the property.

    As we have shown previously, this is very similar to the rental scam, where scammers have listed properties for rent they do not own. While Zillow is a great resource to help determine if a real estate listing is a scam, it is not infallible.

    The best way to prevent your home from showing up as for sale or for rent on Zillow is to claim the property on Zillow yourself. This applies to other real estate platforms as well.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 30, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: real estate, , ,   

    How to handle multiple rental listings of the same address 

    By Greg Collier

    While most of us have our minds on the holidays, there are still those who are in the market for a new home. Many of them are looking to rent and there are many pitfalls they need to avoid, so they won’t be scammed.

    More often than not, rental scammers will copy the legitimate listing from one platform and post it on another. The only things they’ll usually change are the contact information and the amount of the rent. Scammers will always advertise a much lower rent than the legitimate listing. As you might suspect, this is done to try to attract more attention to their ad than the legitimate ad, even though both ads list the same address.

    Unfortunately, this is a pretty strong strategy for the scammers. Even when the prospective renter has read both ads, they’ll often treat the one with the lower rent price as the legitimate one. When pressed about the multiple listings, the scammers will say something to the effect of they’re no longer renting through that realtor. However, in some instances, the scammers will just imitate the actual owner online.

    That’s what happened to a North Carolina landlord who was renting a property on Zillow. The scammer copied her listing word for word and even used her name in their listing. To lure in victims, the scammers posted a rent price that was $200 lower than the actual price and claimed that the property was friendly for cats and large dogs. The scammers were asking victims to wire them $4500 as a deposit.

    If you come across multiple listings for the same property on different platforms, there are steps you can take to avoid being scammed. In most cases, the listing with the highest rent is going to be the legitimate one, although that’s not a guarantee. If one of the landlords only wants to communicate through text messages, that’s a good indicator they could be a scammer. Also, if you’re being asked to make a deposit through money transfer or a payment app like Zelle, Venmo, or Cash App, it’s likely to be a scam.

    As always, we recommend going to the county’s tax assessor’s office or website. At either, you should be able to find out who the true owner of the property is and hopefully avoid all scammers.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 21, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , real estate, , ,   

    The red flags of a rental scam 

    The red flags of a rental scam

    By Greg Collier

    Ever since real estate listings have been available online, there have been real estate scammers. Typically, these scammers pose as landlords who are renting a house. The listings the scammers post are almost always copied from a legitimate real estate listing. A few details such as the rental cost and contact information will be changed. Depending on how far the scammers want to take it, the rental scam could end up costing victims anywhere from a small security deposit, to that plus first and last month’s rent. The scam can also leave victims homeless, as many have moved into homes that weren’t legally rented to them.

    That almost happened to a family from Wichita, Kansas, recently. They found a home for rent that was listed on both Zillow and Facebook Marketplace. The first red flag they encountered was the property was listed for a higher rent price on Zillow than it was on Marketplace. They contacted the seller from Marketplace, hoping they could get a deal.

    The family was asked to pay a $60 application fee to the Marketplace seller through Cash App. They started getting suspicious, but the Marketplace seller assured them this was being done for security reasons.

    After paying the $60, they received an application that was just copied and pasted into an email. The application was lacking important questions that most landlords would need to know. When the family returned the application, the Marketplace seller started hounding them for a $200 security deposit for a property the family hadn’t even seen yet. It was at this point, the family called police, who told them they were being scammed.

    While this incident isn’t a comprehensive detailing of all red flags in a rental scam, it does have the major ones. If you find a rental listing that has two different rental prices, the one with the lower price is more than likely the scam listing. Never make payments to supposed landlords or rental agents using apps like Cash App, Zelle, or Venmo. It’s easy for scammers to take your money and disappear through these apps. Lastly, if a seller is trying to pressure you into making a security payment without seeing the home, there’s a good chance they’re a scammer.

    Moving into a new home is always a big life decision. It should be researched like any other big life moment. Always do a Google search on the home’s address. This could help reveal duplicate listings. If in doubt about who is actually renting the home, check with the county tax assessor’s office or website. The information is free and public and will help you avoid any potential scammers.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 7, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , real estate, , ,   

    Family locked out of own home in rental scam 

    Family locked out of own home in rental scam

    By Greg Collier

    A family from Fresno, California, moved to Tennessee earlier this year. While they were living in Tennessee, they were trying to sell their house in California. Even in our always connected world, that must be difficult to do from two time zones away. That’s also what made it easy for scammers to take advantage of an empty home whose owners were thousands of miles away.

    People moved into the California house just a few months after the family moved to Tennessee. The family still has relatives in the Fresno-area who sent pictures of a U-Haul in the driveway, and the for sale sign had been removed. The relatives were provided the access code to one of the electronic locks, but when they got to the house, the keypad had been removed. To make matters worse, all the locks had been changed as well.

    Police were called to the house, but the people who moved in showed police a rental lease agreement. They also claimed that they found the property listed on craigslist, and paid $3000 in cash to move in. The police were unable to do anything at the time.

    The family contacted a local news station in Fresno who looked into the lease agreement and the signature on the lease didn’t match the signature on the home’s deed. This allowed the news station to contact police, who were then able to have the people vacate the house in 48 hours. But the problems didn’t end there.

    The first thing the family had to deal with was the belongings the people left behind. Under California law, the family had to keep the items for two weeks, then they had to pay to have the items taken away. The house had also been vandalized when the people living there allegedly broke the appliances and plumbing. Unfortunately, their homeowner’s insurance wouldn’t cover the damages because the hose had been left vacant for than 60 days.

    If you’re moving to a new area while still trying to sell your home, don’t rely on the realtor to keep the home safe. We’ve seen too many instances where scammers have fooled realtors into giving them access to the home. Instead, consider investing in a security solution where you can monitor the home remotely. While it might be an additional cost, it can prevent you from having to pay even more in the long run.

     

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