In a world overrun by technology, people have fallen victim to numerous scams. A recent story circulating tells a harrowing tale of a couple who were victims of a real estate scam, losing out on their life savings.
Victims of a Real Estate Scam
House hunting is a grueling process. Sometimes it ends with a family finding their dream home, while other times it’s emotionally or financially taxing. For instance, for Raegan Bartlo, a recent real estate scam has put her and her husband in a tough spot. The Pair had been searching endlessly for their dream home. “A nest egg” that would give them stability and a roof over their heads.
They found a home in a “quaint” West Virginia neighborhood. Additionally, they had been emailing the company who was handling the title. However, things took a dark turn when they were asked to wire the down payment.
Reporting on the Real Estate Scam
According to ABCNews4, the real estate scam email had been fake. Interestingly, Bartlo specializes in online security and all the details seemed to match. As such, even with her expertise, she was fooled. However, one detail caught her attention. She noted a change in the closing time. Confused, she reached out to the person she’d been working with to find out the reason for the change.
As it turned out, Bartlo hadn’t been communicating with the title company. Instead, she’d fallen victim to a real estate scam. “At that point, my whole world fell apart because I had already wired all of the down payment money for our house,” said Bartlo. “And that was about $255,000. And so our nest egg, our savings, everything at that moment was gone.”
Commenting on the Unfortunate Experience
She added: “I just remember shaking a lot and not being able to think straight. To feel like everything you had saved for to be able to have financial stability was just taken. And what if I didn’t have a house? My mother lives with us. Where was she going to go? What were we going to do?”
Sadly, people fall victim to real estate scams and other fraudulent activities often. In fact, Tom Cronkright, founder of CertifID, explains that millions of dollars are lost annually to things like real estate scams. Cronkright himself was victim to a similar scam in 2015, losing $180,000. As such, he was promoted to found his company, which helps prevent wire fraud. “The reality of it is these are some of the most sophisticated bad actors that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into their own tradecraft,” said Cronkright.
Preventing Fraud
He now works with banks and title companies to prevent others from falling victim to a real estate scam or similar fraudulent activity.
Conkright adds that while an estimated $500 is lost each year, he estimates the numbers to be closer to $5 billion. Either way, it’s disheartening to fall victim to a scam like this. In most cases, people lose out on their hard-earned money. Meanwhile other scams play with people’s emotions and prey on the weak and vulnerable.
Frozen Funds
“Global, organized crime syndicates and cartels are often behind these billion-dollar operations,” said Cronkright. “They’re skillfully hacking into financial institutions, real estate companies, and law firms to get everything they need to impersonate a trusted advisor, so when somebody like Raegan Bartlo gets an email to wire her downpayment for closing, there’s nothing suspicious about it.”
Fortunately, Bartlo responded quickly to the real estate scam and was able to freeze her account while the transaction was still being processed. As such, she was able to retain about half of her $255,000 life savings.
An Expert Comments on the Real Estate Scam
As for others, Cronkright notes that very rarely are funds able to be retrieved. However, he was lucky enough to receive a call a few years after the scam took place and found out his case was part of a $3 billion “global crime syndicate.” As such, he was able to testify and was awarded some of his lost funds.
Today, there are countless scams that are prevalent on the internet, in our inboxes, and coming through our phones. Unfortunately, many are disguised as believable and legitimate opportunities so more and more people are falling into these traps. There are obvious ways to protect yourself, such as logging out of a shared computer like at the library, and not sharing your password with others. Meanwhile, thoroughly reading email addresses and avoiding anything with a typo can prevent hackers and scammers from gaining access to you. However, the safest way to avoid falling victim to real estate scams or other fraudulent activities is to communicate directly with a company. Speak over the phone, FaceTime, or Zoom to ensure you’re meeting with the right person and always call the company directly if you get any suspicious notifications.
Furthermore, most companies make a point of letting their customers and clients know that no one will ever contact them for information. A safe rule to live by is that the people who need your information, credit card companies, mortgage companies, and so on, already have your information and while they may ask for verification over the phone, no one will be reaching out to you to ask for access to personal details.