Unchecked fraudsters are running wild

AM 570 Podcast

Column from The Wave

Crime is out of control and without well funded, and publicly supported, police work to take control of the streets, quality of life will certainly keep plummeting. While street crimes are hard to ignore thanks to sensational reporting, popular real time crime reporting smartphone apps and, of course, word on the streets, financial crimes are being left completely unchecked by law enforcement and doing great damage. As a real estate broker, I have been both directly and indirectly affected by fraudsters. To date, neither me nor my clients have suffered any financial losses, but the cybercriminals' attempts keep getting more frequent and more sophisticated thanks to the blind eye of an already underfunded and understaffed NYPD, and an unwillingness to investigate by local District Attorneys, state Attorneys General and Federal Prosecutors. In fact, if you, like me, have ever encountered these scammers, and followed up with law enforcement in an attempt to report the crime (or intended crime), you've likely been disappointed to learn that there's absolutely no interest in even taking a report by police, and no guidance even on what other agencies would be willing to investigate.

I'm currently representing a property for sale that has a minor, albeit legitimate, issue with its deed that's been delaying our ability to close. For some time now my client has been patiently awaiting the decision of both the purchaser's lending institution and title company on whether or not they'll be willing to overlook the issue. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been putting pressure on the buyer and respective attorneys to either resolve this issue or break the deal as my client has all but run out of patience. As is now customary, much of these communications are through email. Yesterday the seller's attorney received an email from the buyer's attorney stating that his client was walking away from the deal and provided wiring instructions for the refund of his $110K deposit that was being held in escrow. Thanks to our collective experience and unfaltering commitment to protocol, the seller's attorney and I quickly identified this as a scam and stopped it in its tracks. Apparently an email hacker was monitoring the stream of conversation and seized an opportunity to pounce. Thankfully, the money remained secure and the potential crisis was avoided. Except for the undivided attention and time of everyone involved to figure this out for what it was, nothing was lost; However, without seasoned professionals involved in this deal, things likely would've turned out much worse.

Another scam that I've been exposed to professionally lately is fraudsters reaching out to my agents via text message while pretending to be me. The scammer then informs my agent of some fantastic unforeseen circumstance (usually at an imaginary closing table) that requires immediate attention and, you guessed it, money to resolve. The agent is then instructed to wire money or purchase a gift card and send "me" the information once the task is completed. This scam has been attempted on me at least 5 times over the last couple of years.

Both of these audacious scams have been happening very frequently and to many different brokers whom I've spoken with. Two things can be learned from this fact: First, the criminals wouldn't be doing it if they weren't successful at making money from it. Secondly, they'll keep doing it, and developing more scams, until they're stopped.

It's important to understand that these criminals, who are often organized, aren't only targeting the real estate industry; They're relentlessly targeting the public as well, and often the most vulnerable among us, our beloved seniors. We must demand action to stop them.