The FBI is sending an urgent warning to homeowners to be aware of ‘title theft,’ the latest of various moves fraudsters make in order to steal a property owner’s identity and sell their land out from under them.
The land theft is on the rise, with the FBI saying the scammers tend to prey on the elderly.
‘Our elderly population [are more at risk] because they are more likely to own vacant pieces of land that they have had for quite some time, and they are also more likely to own homes without any mortgages on them,’ FBI Special Agent Vivian Barrios told CBS.
‘Because those have the biggest benefit to the criminal actor.’
In Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, 2,301 victims lost more than $61.5 million from 2019 to 2023.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, nationwide, from 2019 through 2023, 58,141 victims reported $1.3 billion in losses relating to real estate fraud.
In the Boston Division – which includes all of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island – during the same period, 2,301 victims reported losing more than $61.5 million. In Maine 262 victims lost $6,253,008. In Massachusetts, 1,576 people lost $46,269,818. In New Hampshire 239 people lost $4,144,467. In Rhode Island 224 people lost a combined $4,852,220.
Time is of the essence and as soon as a victim finds out this has happened, they need to report it, ideally within 24-hours. That makes it easier for the feds to get the money back to the victims.
Plymouth, Massachusetts resident John Grimes got a call from a local attorney about his ‘sale’
Title pirates got Plymouth, MA, resident John Grimes, who nearly lost his home after he found out it was for sale.
Grimes bought his home six years ago but in September 2024 got a call from local attorney Alan Sharaf informing him his home was for sale. Grimes was shocked.
He filed a fraud report with the FBI. He also signed up for a notification alert at the registry of deeds. That alert is free and will let him know when a document is recorded for his property.
Sharaf said he was looking at a purchase and sale agreement that was supposedly signed by Grimes. He wanted to make sure he was actually selling the home to the ‘buyer,’ who was located in Montreal and had made an all cash over. No one ever answered the phone number listed for the buyer.
Grimes loves his home, which backs onto a cranberry bog, isn’t selling it, and never signed sale papers.
‘I got a phone call from a lawyer just outside of Boston and he had gotten a request asking him to facilitate a closing with an e-signature. And everything was all set. But it wasn’t my real signature,’ Grimes told the Daily Mail.
Grimes said if he hadn’t gotten that call, it would have been too late. The lawyer told him that another attorney would have shown up at the registry of deeds, filed a record of a fraudulent deed by Grimes, and he would have had his house taken away. He would have gotten it back but only after months of fighting and tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
‘He advised me to check my credit, contact the FBI, which I did immediately and I had to give them a bunch of detailed information,’ Grimes says.
The FBI has told homeowners that if there is a theft it’s best resolved by reporting it quickly
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‘The bank looks, oh you’ve got a deed, it’s been recorded at the registry as a sale,’ Grimes says.
Once the sale was flagged as fraudulent, the ‘buyers’ disappeared.
The FBI explained to Grimes how exactly these scammers pull this off. Because most contracts today are done electronically, it’s easy for thieves to do.
First they target a property in the US at random. They send a fake deed they’ve made electronically to a local lawyer they ‘hire’ to ‘close’ on the sale.
If they’re lucky the lawyer will do business as usual, easily sign off on it, and send them back a purchase and sale agreement. The scammers then claim to the bank that they rushed to pay all cash in competition with other buyers, and now want to take out a loan, which often gets approved because the house is an asset they now ‘own.’ Then they run away with the loan cash, which oftentimes is hundreds of thousands of dollars.
‘You’re the owner. They get a loan and take off with the money. And then I would get a notice that there’s an overdue loan on my property,’ he added.
The FBI has since sent out a note to realtors and homeowners about the scam, and told elderly people especially to be aware.
Tens of thousands of victims lost more than $61.5 million from 2019 to 2023 in the scam
Lisa Vesperman Still explains how they target
Lisa Vesperman Still, a title underwriter and past president of the New England Land Title Association, said the scammers are so sophisticated with technology it’s become easy to dupe lawyers who are bogged down with work or in a rush.
‘Seller impersonation fraud by title pirates is happening quite a bit now, and unfortunately a landowner doesn’t often know until the deed from the fraudster to the innocent purchaser gets recorded,’ Still told the Daily Mail.
‘The fraudsters also impersonate vacant land owners, owners of empty vacation rentals or second homes that are mortgage free, using fake identification and information combed from public websites, and reach out to unsuspecting real estate agents wanting to sell “their” property.’
She adds they state it all has to be done remotely, that they can’t meet or appear on a video chat – and certainly can’t come to the closing.
‘Any ID they provide is a very well done forgery, there are often features on the fake ID that are slightly off from an authentic one, but so slightly off that one has to very closely examine every feature. They need their money wired, and want the property sold quickly, almost always at a price well below market value,’ she added.
Seller impersonation fraud and title piracy are just two of the types of real estate fraud included within those statistics.
The National Association of Realtors has offered tips to help real estate agents and homeowners avoid getting caught in this scam.
Avoid remote closings, if possible, they advise. Ask for in-person identity checks. Request copies of documents that only the property owner would have, including a copy of the most recent tax bill, utility bill, or survey from when the property was purchased, in addition to the individual’s ID.
Send a certified letter to the address of record on the tax bill. Look up the phone number by reverse search or through the phone carrier. Call to verify the public notary and confirm he/she attested to the documents.
They also suggest homeowners sign up for a notification alert at the registry of deeds, which will alert someone when a document is recorded for their property.