Property scams vary greatly in how they are executed, but they all aim to steal money from unsuspecting individuals who are interested in renting, buying, or leasing a property. In these types of scams, the fraudsters often pose as property owners, landlords, real estate agencies, property management companies, or other property-adjacent businesses to trick their victims into handing over money or sensitive financial and personal information that they can use to steal from them.
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Property scams vary greatly in how they are executed, but they all aim to steal money from unsuspecting individuals who are interested in renting, buying, or leasing a property. In these types of scams, the fraudsters often pose as property owners, landlords, real estate agencies, property management companies, or other property-adjacent businesses to trick their victims into handing over money or sensitive financial and personal information that they can use to steal from them.
In escrow wire fraud scams, the fraudsters typically gain access to an email account associated with a real estate sale that’s currently in progress. They usually do this through some sort of phishing attack targeted at a real estate agent, a lender, a title agent, or a buyer. They then contact the buyer at the appropriate point in the sale process and pose as someone from the title or escrow company, asking the buyer to wire funds to a bank account. They then disappear with the wired funds.
Loan flipping scams involve ill-intentioned lenders convincing homeowners to repeatedly refinance their mortgage, borrowing more money each time. This results in the property owners eventually ending up with more loans than they can realistically afford to pay off, and the malicious lender earns more and more in fees and interest.
In foreclosure relief scams, the scammers target people who have homes in foreclosure by advertising foreclosure relief services or acquiring lists of properties in foreclosure. They promise to help the victims keep their homes for a fee, but never actually provide the foreclosure relief they promised.
Moving companies have also been known to commit fraud in a number of ways. For example, they may demand cash upfront and then never provide moving services or they might not give you a written estimate and then charge you much more than you agreed on for a move. Or, they might get you to sign a blank contract for the moving services and charge you an exorbitant sum after moving. Moving scammers have even been known to hold belongings hostage until you’ve paid them whatever they want.
Buying or renting a commercial property comes along with the risks of different types of commercial real estate scams. Scammers may pose as property owners and demand money upfront to see a property, then never appear to actually meet you in person. Or, they might show you a property that’s different from the one you saw online. Other commercial real estate scammers forge documents in order to obtain sensitive data from you that they can use to steal funds or your identity.
Real estate scammers sometimes work with home inspectors to commit fraud. Fraudulent home inspectors will tell you everything is alright with a property in exchange for a fee from a scam real estate agency, so you end up paying way more than something is worth and are stuck with expensive repairs down the road. Alternatively, scammers might just pose as home inspectors and charge you for inspections, when they really have no idea what they are doing.
In title and deed scams, the scammers attempt to illegitimately transfer the ownership of a property to someone else, without the real property owners knowing about it. They can do this by altering real deeds and titles with different names. They may then use the altered titles and deeds to sell the property to an unsuspecting buyer or to borrow money against your property.
If you’ve fallen victim to one of the many types of property scams out there, you might feel like all is lost — but it isn’t necessarily true. Fund recovery specialists, like ours at Winback-Refund Service, have extensive experience retrieving stolen funds after various real estate and rental scams. For the highest probability of getting your money back, contact our team right away to start looking at the evidence and reviewing your case. We will do everything in our power to pressure the scammers into returning your money.
