Real Estate Scams and Fraud - Buy - Sell - Build - Invest with Confidence

Real Estate Scams and Fraud

Welcome to the 21st century Bank Robbery!  Not only are scams and frauds on the rise, they are hitting different industries like Real Estate!  Beware that a person sit next to you at starbucks maybe a hacked. They come in all shapes, sizes, age groups! Trust me when I tell you there are some very young hackers as well as older ones. They hack in different ways. To make things worse.. we now have competition between hackers internationally! You will get calls from robotic calls, none stop calls from different phone numbers that they can mask or utilize - the same message over and over again. 

Calls ranging from:

"IRS or Police  has issues an arrest warrant - you must call us immediately"
"You have qualified for a loan" 
"You won...."
to ..

Hijacking or disguising themselves as your  Mortgage, or Title company and ask you for bank or personal information.  There are emails that have - unfortunately, requested BANK transfers to specific accounts that are offshore that by the time the client figures out.. the money is gone! 

So please verify the person, phone number or the email before you release ANY personal information. For Bank transfers or Wiring - call to make sure you have the right email, person and the BANK Number!  

With ANY money transfers - Call to verify before you do it. Verify the Account Numbers and make sure you take notes of who you talk to etc. We have a contact form we provide to our buyers where you can keep track of each person involved in the transaction so if you have any questions, call and verify before you take action. 

Here is how you can report the scams on FBI's website:   Visit https://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx  and follow their process. 

Work with Your Agent to make sure your info is safe & secure! Use Services like Docusign...

I have an extensive background in IT and was actually a professor of Network Security before I left the corporate world and decided to invest,consult & market Real Estate & homes! I am still shocked to this day to hear agents talking about contracts, clients in specific areas and worse yet, putting together personal, confidential information and sending those across in an unsecured way.  Your information in the wrong hands can be detrimental. We hear lots of stories of people being scammed. As a matter of fact, a family member was a recent victim to Computer hacking where they locked her computer up and asked her to pay $300 to unlock it. 

There are various forms of scams happening and since this is the 21st century Bank Robbery - you will only see them utilizing different channels. Please check and verify BEFORE you provide ANY Personal Information!  Ensure that your contracts and any personal information is communicated through secured channels like DOCUSIGN etc. 

Be Safe, be Well and Be Smart! 

If you have any need for Real Estate Services, you can call me or my husband at anytime. 703-870-3885. 


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