A 'For Sale' sign was placed in the ground at the vacant lot Madhu Sakthivel owns, only he didn't agree to it being there. He's owned the Phoenix lot for about 13 years and plans to build a home there or pass on ownership to his family.
Madhu says he never had plans to sell the lot, so when he received a notification, it was a big shock.
"I got a notification from Zillow saying that, 'hey, one of the properties that you own, the status changed on the property,'" Madhu recalled.
He found his property listed on multiple online sites. Not only was it for sale, but the listings stated an offer was accepted but back-ups were welcome.
"This is crazy," Madhu said about finding the listing. A scammer was posing as Madhu trying to sell the vacant lot for cash quickly. "Somebody took time to fill up like seven pages, signed my fake signature."
One of Madhu's friends, and Realtor, started digging for information. They quickly contacted the Realtor listed as the seller's agent and the title company involved in the transaction.
"We moved... within 24 hours it was canceled," said Dax Watson. He's general counsel for My Home Group which is the brokerage associated with the selling agent.
Watson says they were duped by the fraudster posing as Madhu as well.
"The ultimate gatekeeper is the title company because they're the ones that are actually going to be collecting all the identification paperwork or whatever ID cards, do the notarization," Watson explained.
While Madhu raised the red flags in this case, Watson says most fraud is caught by title companies.
"It's pretty rampant right now across the United States."
Nikki Salgat, general counsel for the Arizona Association of Realtors, warns of increased reports of fraud or scams. She says scammers posing as the owners of a property will often say they're out of state and can't meet the Realtor in person. Salgat says fraudsters will likely make up an emotional story or reason why they need to sell the property quickly and for cash.
Salgat says vacant lots may be especially appealing to fraudsters.
"Maybe there's nobody necessarily paying attention to the property as much so vacant lots are really what they want, what the perpetrators have been looking after and trying to sell with fraudulent deeds," Salgat explained.
Madhu tells us he still has trust in the system but wants more due diligence before a property is listed to make it harder for fraudsters to take advantage.
My Home Group agrees updates are needed.
Watson tells the Let Joe Know team they are putting together a task force with several title companies. They're specifically focused on creating a sheet detailing and tracking vacant land to help sellers know which properties may have a higher fraud risk and help title companies with verifying the identity of someone claiming to own vacant land.
If you're a home or property owner, keep tabs on your land.
You can claim and prove the property is yours on third-party selling sites. That way you can set up alerts, as Madhu did, and be notified if there's a status change.
If you live near a property you own, especially if it is vacant, drive by or have someone check on it occasionally.
You can also check the county assessor's website and search your property to make sure no one has tried to change the property address, title, or tax records.
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