Top 5 Real Estate Frauds

Simultaneous Purchases

This type of fraud occurs when two or more parties are made an offer on the same property, which they all accept. Multiple offers may be made to a single buyer, and a single offer may be made to multiple sellers. In either case, this scenario can occur in several ways:

• A seller lists his property for sale and is approached by different buyers who submit multiple offers. The seller accepts one of the offers while simultaneously engaging with others.
• A buyer purchases multiple properties from the same seller, which were not offered for sale at the same time.
• A buyer submits an offer on a property for sale by the owner and then finds that it goes into a contract with another individual before the deal closes.

In each of these situations, all parties may be unaware that fraud has been committed until it’s too late—after the money has changed hands or title has been transferred.

Property Abandonment or Deed Transfer by Owner

If your property is abandoned, many criminals will try to take ownership without your knowledge. They may even offer it for sale online or to family members! To avoid having this happen, contact an attorney immediately so they can provide updates from time to time on what’s happening with the home–and whether there are any suspicious activities around its location or value. In addition, if someone contacts them about purchasing or taking over ownership rights for an abandoned property that belongs to you (or a deceased relative), then be sure not to let them make these deals without first consulting their lawyer who specializes in real estate law matters such as title fraud issues — including potential risks associated with doing such things before consulting legal counsel first!

False Documents and Forged Signatures

When you find yourself being defrauded, it can be very difficult to figure out what’s happening and how to handle it. First things first—don’t give up. Your realtor should help you sort through the documents and guide you in what steps to take next with your lawyers and mortgage lender.

In the meantime, let’s go through some of the most common types of frauds that occur in a title transfer so that you’ll have an idea of what to look for if you suspect something is wrong.

• Fake Title Deeds: This one is pretty straightforward—the document presented as a title deed isn’t actually for your property at all.
• Forged Signatures: In this type of fraud, the party selling or buying will use a forged signature on some or all of the documents needed to complete a title transfer. This can be in association with false documents or fake ID. With false documents, someone will create another version of a real document (a driver’s license, power bill) using information from someone else’s account (or even your own).

Identity Theft

When I think of identity theft, I often imagine that it’s a terrifying experience where a stranger steals all your personal information and uses it to open new accounts, or even obtain money from other means. But what if you were the one who was the victim? What would you do?

In her work at Identity Theft 911, Joanna S. Lublin points out that “while bank accounts go unnoticed for months and credit cards are never used unless fraud is detected, houses and real estate titles can be sold immediately.” As a result, people might not know their homes have been stolen until they find out that they’ve been targeted by identity thieves. They don’t realize it until you do—and this could lead to real estate title fraud: having your home stolen by someone else as an act of fraud.

Lublin offers a few steps to take when you come across fraudulent activity on your own house or home:

• Find out how much your house is worth. If the market value has decreased significantly in recent years, this might indicate someone else has purchased the property at a high price just so they can sell it quickly and make profits while doing so. In some cases perpetrators will intentionally lower the value of the property because they know once they have access to cash through selling off assets elsewhere that there isn’t much stopping them from purchasing another property with cash in hand once again and closing another deal before anything becomes suspicious.
• Look up any foreclosure listings near where you live to see if there are any reports on prospective buyers: “If there is no pending foreclosure notice for your street address…that means it may not really be up for sale.” There could be more than one fraudulent purchaser trying to hide from law enforcement officials by using fake addresses in order to buy properties under different names not associated with them—and with different prospects looking to buy their homes—they’re likely making sure everything is in order before proceeding forward with buying in hopes of avoiding negative publicity or being caught red

It pays to be vigilant when it comes to real estate title fraud.

Every year, thousands of cases of real estate fraud are reported in Canada—and these are only the reported cases. Title fraud is a particularly serious kind of fraud that is often undetected for months or even years, until individuals discover that their property has been taken from them without their knowledge. This can happen to anyone; whether your home is mortgaged, unoccupied and/or unsecured, or if you’re just not paying attention.

Title fraud can take many forms; keep an eye out for the following suspicious activity and don’t hesitate to contact your lawyer if you have any questions.