{"id":129343,"date":"2019-05-07T20:25:34","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T20:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/?p=129343"},"modified":"2019-05-07T20:25:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T20:25:34","slug":"too-smart-to-fall-for-a-real-estate-scam-think-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/too-smart-to-fall-for-a-real-estate-scam-think-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Too smart to fall for a real estate scam? Think again"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header clearing\">\n<div class=\"title-wrap\">\n<div class=\"entry-subtitle\">Real estate and rental internet crimes affected 11,300 victims last year and cost $150M in losses, up nearly three-fold, according to a new FBI report. Agents, experts, and victims share their stories.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<article id=\"post-732809\" class=\"post-732809 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-agent category-brokerage category-buyers-tools category-lifestyle category-news-brief category-regulations category-rentals category-technology tag-carol-berberian tag-fbi tag-lamacchia-realty tag-tracey-hawkins tag-zillow\">\n<div class=\"row\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"author-wrap row\">\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"entry-author-right-wrap clearing\">\n<div class=\"entry-author-section-wrap clearing\">\n<div class=\"entry-author-name\"><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <a class=\"author-name-link author vcard\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inman.com\/author\/vbondarenko\/\"> Veronika Bondarenko <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content-wrap\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-inner ism-transition ism-public-content\">\n<p>If $36,000 for a three-bedroom house in D.C. sounds too good to be true, it probably is. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inman.com\/2019\/03\/18\/coldwell-banker-unveils-new-logo-ongoing-rebranding-effort\/\">Coldwell Banker<\/a> agent Scott Frost first discovered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inman.com\/2018\/08\/29\/exposed-a-new-zillow-leads-scam-looks-strangely-familiar\/\">the scam<\/a> after discovering that he was listed on a Zillow ad for a property with a price nearly ten times below the typical home value in the area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI first noticed it was a scam due to the incredibly low price,\u201d Frost told Inman. \u201cI then contacted the listing agent whose photos were used and found out that they were posted illegally as a scam.\u201d Once alerted to the scam, Zillow took down the listing.<\/p>\n<p>Stories of online scammers targeting both agents and homeowners are many \u2014 last winter, a retired pastor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inman.com\/2018\/12\/21\/retired-pastor-and-wife-lose-130k-to-wire-fraud\/\">lost $130,000 to wire fraud<\/a> after transferring money for what he thought was a house. Scammers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inman.com\/2018\/08\/29\/exposed-a-new-zillow-leads-scam-looks-strangely-familiar\/\">regularly create fake leads<\/a> that look like they come from Zillow or Realtor.com. And, most recently, a\u00a0<em>Forbes<\/em> contributor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/alyyale\/2019\/05\/07\/real-estate-wire-fraud-is-real-and-it-almost-happened-to-me\/#17c06ef01c47\">got a fraudulent message<\/a> from someone who, pretending to be her escrow officer, told her she needed to wire money immediately or lose the home she\u2019s been trying to close for weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The latest\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ic3.gov\/media\/annualreport\/2018_IC3Report.pdf\">Internet Crime Report<\/a>, conducted annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), found a total of\u00a0351,936 incidents of Internet-enabled theft, fraud and exploitation in 2018. This number is up nearly 15 percent, from 301,580 incidents in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Real estate and rental internet crimes affected 11,300 victims in 2018, according to the new report, and cost them nearly $150 million, up dramatically from 2017, when 9,645 victims were impacted by these types of crimes, and lost a collective $56 million to scammers and fraudsters using online means.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWire fraud attempts are definitely our biggest risk,\u201d Carol Berberian, a safety trainer and business development consultant at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inman.com\/2019\/03\/26\/heres-why-this-broker-started-his-own-ibuyer\/\">Boston-based brokerage Lamacchia Realty<\/a>, told Inman. \u201cScammers are patient and follow the details of a transaction. Typically, the Realtor or clients will unknowingly have their email compromised which can give the scammer access to all of their communication.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_697741\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<div class=\"empty\">\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">C<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Real estate scams are, according to Berbarian, are getting increasingly difficult to identify \u2014 tech-savvy fraudsters will take great pains to know the minute details of one\u2019s real estate history or generate leads that look remarkably close to real ones.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inman.com\/2018\/10\/01\/the-essential-guide-to-agent-safety\/\">one of the most important things buyers and agents can do<\/a> when they spot a scam is get on the phone. Before transferring any money online, one should actually speak to an agent, escrow officer or other real estate professional to see if the request is truly coming from them. If an agent gets an email asking for money to receive a lead, they can also reach out to Zillow and Realtor.com to check whether it is genuine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u00a0are all quick to send an email or a text rather than picking up the phone,\u201d Berberian said. \u201cVerifying any request dealing with money over the phone with your Realtor, attorney, lender or title company is always worth the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Real estate safety expert Tracey Hawkins said that she\u2019s seen one other common type of real estate scam \u2014 fraudsters will list a house in a popular market for a low price, tell the interested buyer or renter that it\u2019s unavailable for viewing and then ask for a deposit to hold the property.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cA Google search is a great starting place,\u201d Hawkins told Inman, adding that one should also always physically tour a property before making any deposit. \u201cThat will help confirm property ownership and any real estate activity (like listings on various websites). Local county websites typically offer free property owner as well as tax record searches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Particularly in a competitive market, it can be easy to feel like one has to act fast in order to get their dream house or a profitable lead. But as online real estate scams become more and more technologically complex, taking the extra time to review who is asking for money and why can save you thousands in lost dollars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf a deal is too good to be true, it probably is,\u201d said Hawkins. \u201cProceed with caution or walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real estate and rental internet crimes affected 11,300 victims last year and cost $150M in losses, up nearly three-fold, according to a new FBI report. Agents, experts, and victims share their stories. by Veronika Bondarenko If $36,000 for a three-bedroom house in D.C. sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Coldwell Banker agent<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/too-smart-to-fall-for-a-real-estate-scam-think-again\/\" class=\"themebutton2\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5437,"featured_media":130092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[12269],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Too smart to fall for a real estate scam? Think again - BHHS EWM Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/too-smart-to-fall-for-a-real-estate-scam-think-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Too smart to fall for a real estate scam? Think again - BHHS EWM Realty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Real estate and rental internet crimes affected 11,300 victims last year and cost $150M in losses, up nearly three-fold, according to a new FBI report. Agents, experts, and victims share their stories. by Veronika Bondarenko If $36,000 for a three-bedroom house in D.C. sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Coldwell Banker agentRead More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/too-smart-to-fall-for-a-real-estate-scam-think-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BHHS EWM Realty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EWMRealtyInternational\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-07T20:25:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/BHHS-On-Solid-Background.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"376\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"376\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Debra Spadafora\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Debra Spadafora\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/too-smart-to-fall-for-a-real-estate-scam-think-again\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/too-smart-to-fall-for-a-real-estate-scam-think-again\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Debra Spadafora\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ewmrealestate.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9980000bb662aff02a03bbf507c06833\"},\"headline\":\"Too smart to fall for a real estate scam? 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