Beware of "land for sale" scams

[Collin Hays]

A fellow contributor here, John Carbone, sent me a link yesterday to a lot for sale in the Smokies.  The price certainly seemed reasonable.  It so happened that I know the owner of the lot.  He is one of our homeowner clients.  I called him last night to ask him if he was selling his lot, and he said "No."  

As it turns out, a fraudster posing as the owner listed the land with a local realtor.  The fraudster had captured my client's driver's license info, and who knows what else at this time.

Moral of the story:  If you are looking at land for sale, or any real property for that matter, make sure it is actually for sale before you start making offers and, more importantly, sending any money.

[Jay Hinrichs]

I wonder what the angle is.. this would all stop when title report was run.

and EM would or should go to the title company.

its not like fake leasing a home.

its not common for a Real Estate agent to verify ownership of a property prior to listing. I have never had an agent do that to me in all my years at this.. in years past we would open title the second we got the listing. so that would be done. and that would smoke the fraud out. no pun intended there in the smokies.

I know in low value land sales  like land geek stuff you see. where values are quite low it is common though to just use QC deed and send cash to the seller..  so an unsuspecting buyer could get hosed that way.  But with an agent involved I just dont see how this plays out