5 Most Common Real Estate Scams!

You might be hearing about cryptocurrency scams in every corner of the world. So, the last thing you will want to hear today is real estate scams.

Unfortunately, nowadays, people are also getting scammed while buying, renting, or refinancing their mortgage related to real estate.

Unfortunately, more and more criminals are getting creative in making new methods of targeting customers.

Most Common Real Estate Scams: eAskme

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations Internet Crime Complaint Centre reports, more than 13,600 people were victimized by real estate scams in 2020 alone.

Also, the number has increased in 2024, which is alarming for you if you are willing to purchase, rent or refinance your real estate in the future. So, keeping an eye on real estate scams would be helpful.

If you know how scammers can approach you, you can easily avoid them, and this is something we will discuss today.

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Escrow wire fraud:

In this scam, the scammer will give you an email, phone call, or text and pretend to be an escrow company.

You need to understand that the company created by the scammer will look utterly identical to the one you are already dealing with.

Therefore, they want to wear your escrow fund, and the website will look similar to the one you are familiar with.

So, to create an identical website, they make fake mobile numbers, email addresses, and many more things.

You can only pay attention to brief details about these contacts. Also, check the email address and the link to the website properly if there is any miss-spelling.

If you ignore the small details, you will lose your hard-earned money, and the scammer will get away with it.

Loan flipping:

It is also not the most common type of real estate fraud. Nowadays, the predatory lender is going to call you again and again to refinance your mortgage.

Also, he will be very invasive about the message that he will use to get you to refinance your mortgage.

Each time you borrow money, the money will be higher, but that peace will also be higher.

The scammers mostly charge very high fees, and the transaction is the make or higher.

Therefore, repeatedly, the house owner gets stuck with the payment and, later on, cannot repay the mortgage.

More importantly, older people are property owners with memory loss issues or are targeted by such people.

Foreclosure relief:

Most of the time, homeowners who face many financial problems get behind in their mortgage payments. Therefore, they are desperate to save their home, where the scammers get into the picture.

These people have access to the public records of homes and, therefore, target anyone who cannot pay their mortgage loan payments on time.

They tell them they can help them save their houses and demand a hefty or upfront fee in return.

Rental scams:

The scammer will create a fake advertisement on a social media website in this scam.

The primary target of creating such an advertisement is attracting unsuspecting renters. Sometimes, they take pictures of a property from other websites and then use them.

This camera will not connect to the property so we will ask for an upfront payment for you.

Mostly, the payment is very high, and sometimes, it can also be a deposit for hold. They are just looking to make quick cash and may also be willing to get into some nefarious activities for this work.

Moving scams:

Suppose that you are purchasing new accommodation in a new city.

You are very excited about it and want to move your stuff.

However, you cannot do everything by yourself, so you will look for a company that can do the work for you. You will list all your belongings and what you want to transfer to your new place.

So, you will get a quarter of $4000 in total as an estimate for the work done.

However, the company will call you and tell you it will cost $10,000.

You'll be upset about this, but you might have already paid an advance payment to the company. So, the company will never show up, and you will be prey to moving scams.

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What are Financial Frauds?

There are several types of financial fraud, but we can generally understand this concept as any situation in which bank details and/or personal information are improperly used to commit crimes, causing losses to the victims, who can be both consumers and companies.

Fraud prevention and cybercrime are linked and constantly evolving.

What are Financial Frauds?: eAskme

As professionals savvy with prevention of fraud come up with new, improved ways of defecting fraud, fraudsters, on the other hand, come up with more ways to sell information of their victims.

Scammers today use sophisticated strategies and malware to succeed in their fraudulent activities.

Check out some of the main types of theft that scammers use:

Common fraud regimes and fraudulent activity:

Data breaches occur when a fraudster breaks into a corporate network and copies information from the database.

The fraudster often looks for customer records, credit card information, or other personally identifiable information.

The scammers then sell it on the Dark Web to acquire this information. While the result is often the same, how a fraudster carries out their attack can vary.

What's more, attackers always vary their approach.

Below, we've included some of the most common types of fraudulent activity that still occur today.

What are the main types of digital fraud?

1. Phishing:

Phishing is a method in which criminals pose as acquaintances of people, e-commerce platforms, or financial institutions to steal their victims' personal and banking data.

The scam consists of creating a fake website similar to that of some legitimate companies.

Then, through messages via email, WhatsApp or SMS, criminals send a link requesting confirmation of the data.

By clicking on this link, victims are redirected to the fake website, where they end up falling for the scam and providing their details.

2. Sending fake bank receipts:

This type of digital fraud consists of creating false receipts on behalf of large companies.

The victim deposits the money in the scammers' accounts when making the payment.

Some versions of this type of fraud can even involve the creation of fake pages that simulate the company's environment, where victims are redirected to download the fake document without raising suspicions about the scam.

3. Malicious software installation:

This type of digital scam can occur when browsing suspicious websites or even clicking on links received from unreliable emails.

In these situations, users may inadvertently end up installing malicious programs, which will give third parties access to their private information, as well as personal and financial data.

4. Theft of card data:

This type of fraud can occur physically when a user has his card stolen; and virtually when the consumer enters the card details on fake, unprotected, or unsecured websites.

Scammers can make purchases in possession of this data until the user realizes and blocks the card.

According to the TransUnion survey, along with fraudulent charges, credit card theft ranks ninth among the most common types of digital fraud in the world, corresponding to 13% of cases.

What can users do to avoid being victims of financial fraud?

Financial fraud often occurs due to the carelessness or ignorance of users.

For this reason, many companies and institutions develop awareness campaigns, guiding their clients on risk behaviors and information security practices.

Among these, we have:

• Avoid registering on suspicious sites.
• Never send personal data over the phone.
• Never share personal data on social media. Be careful with very flashy offers or gifts.
• Always check the reputations of stores and sellers before making purchases online.
• Avoid putting data on shared computers and always log out of your accounts after use.
• Finally, be careful with links received by email or SMS.
• Always check the sender, where the link leads, and if in doubt, don't click.

Conclusion:

Having known what Financial frauds mean and how to prevent them, there's the need for users to consciously stay active and alert about possible frauds as new methods evolve daily to scam unsuspecting users.

Still have any question, do share via comments.

Share it with your friends and family.

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