Lakeside Title Co. and Deardorff & Moon, LLC want to notify all of our clients and partners of a recent up tick of fraud relating to “potential purchasers” sending cashier’s checks to third party title companies or attorneys. The scam starts with an email to an agent expressing interest in a listing; and also requesting a recommendation for an attorney to hold the deposit. The “Interested Buyer” only communicates via email, is located out of the country usually, intends to pay cash, and is not available by telephone during normal business hours. The goal of the scam is to deposit the entire purchase price (fraudulent cashier’s check) with third party, cancel contract, then request funds to be wired back. Below are some links to which provide sufficient proof this common scenario is most likely a scam. We recommend that agents do a simple online GOOGLE on their prospective buyers so they can verify they are working with legitimate clients. Also provided is a link to report this fraud to the FBI.
http://www.sarasotahomesforsalenow.com/sarasota-real-estate-scam/
You will see that the scam was reported by a general counsel for a Remax in the NW region and all of these sites report similar scams :
http://www.trulia.com/profile/paulettejonesrealtor/qanda/ , https://point2.zendesk.com/entries/218728-real-estate-scam-using-pt-2-to-find-agents , http://activerain.com/blogsview/1930492/scammers-or-legitimate-buyers- and at http://activerain.com/blogsview/1770880/scam-to-buy-expensive-home-from-masaaski-sasamoto
Tags: Deardorff & Moon, Lakeside Title Company, LLC., scams
