What to know about avoiding seller impersonation fraud.

Scams are sketch. It’s a yucky feeling to start to realize you may be playing into a bad guys trap. It’s far worse to actually fully fall prey to someone’s nasty con, to lose a lot of money, for example, a down payment on your new home. Ugh, what a nightmare. 

It’s hard to believe people would do something so dirty, so devastating, so down low. They out there, and a recent study conducted by NDT analytics shows they are going hard these days. Which is to say 28% of title companies experienced some form of seller impersonation fraud in the year 2023. That’s no small percentage, it’s enough to sit up and pay attention, it’s enough to be called a legit problem. The NDT study included 783 title companies, and they reported 2 out of every 10 companies came across seller impersonation fraud in April of this year. To put it plainly, that’s way too many frauds attempt to be comfortable with, and these title companies are by no means cool with this. 91% of these companies, plan to bust out with some special, specific employee training to help ensure their staff can really pin point these jokers before they get after any of their clients. That 2023 study did say 46% of the attempted fraudsters were foiled before closing, thankfully. So it’s definitely doable if you stay vigilant to get off that train before it derails. Almost solidly half of the fraud attempts don’t come to fruition, and this is due to the implementation of some steps that are not possible to bypass. One such step is an identity verification process during which the sellers identify couldn’t be stolen or impersonated by a thieving jerk. 

There are homeowner policies that cover a buyer falling victim to some dirtbags ploy before the closing of the real estate transaction. These policies also protect from said dirtbag (third party fraudulent) transferring the owners property going forward. Those are very reassuring options. 

Here’s a few tips to stay safe;

Use a trusted in person notary at closing. Watch out for made up credentials, liars gonna lie to you in any and all ways in this instance. 

Get your guard up if the seller tells your agent they only want a cash buyer. Or if the seller doesn’t show up for closing and only signs documents electronically. It is definitely sketch if they ask that the money from the sale goes directly to them. 

Nah bro! Shady! 

The Monday Team Agents are boss in this arena. It ain’t our first rodeo, and nobody’s getting one over on us. One of the great things about having an agent you trust, to be smart and aware and just the right amount of suspicious of everything until proven otherwise, is your far less likely to be played. It’s a high stakes game, and buyers and sellers need the whole team from agents to title companies to have their backs. It helps as well to know what to look out for for yourself. So good on ya, reading this has brought you way up in the ranks, of aware and informed. 

You are wearing real estate information armor! You are nobody’s fool.