On February 8, former Flagler County resident Raymond Spiewak got a call from his son. Spiewak, now living in Massachusetts, was told that there had been a strong offer on his 12,000 square foot lot in Palm Coast’s L Section.
Spiewak didn’t have an interest in selling the lot, which he bought in 2016. He was planning on building a retirement home on the land one day. Still, he figured he should log onto Zillow.com, the biggest real estate listing website, and see what other lots in the area were selling for. That’s when he got a shock that just about knocked him out of his chair.
His lot was listed for sale.
How? Why? And, huh? He hadn’t listed it, nor had anyone in his family. “You just sit there staring at it for a minute like, ‘how could this be?’” Spiewak said.
So Spiewak did a little investigating, and learned what many other landowners are discovering these days: Fraudulent listings, and scam artists pretending to own property to make a quick buck, are prevalent everywhere.
The police, the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies are trying to keep up, but the criminals are usually one step ahead.
Every day, hundreds of listings pop up on Zillow and other sites that are unauthorized. Overseas con artists offer fake documents, make phony phone calls, and send illegitimate emails, to brokers and title companies.
The property owner getting defrauded often has no idea it’s going on until it’s too late.
“It’s hard for owners and hard for (real estate) agents to catch this, because scammers have gotten very good at falsifying documents, and phone numbers, and anything else needed,” said Michael Grossholz of AM Home Realty, of Port Orange. “You have out-of-state owners sometimes, and you have criminals taking advantage of some sellers not being very savvy on computers and social media.”
Spiewak said once he brought the phony listing to the attention of the realtor whose name was on the listing, Jennifer Wagner of Coastal Realty Pros, she immediately had the listing pulled.
Agents like Wagner and Grossholz get listings from various places that are “third party referrals,” meaning they could’ve been sent through realtor.com, which is a clearinghouse for property listings.
Spiewak said he’s learned that just about anyone, armed with correct information about a property, and a working phone number, can get a sale listing for a property through.
“All over the country, often with empty lots, these listings go up and sail right through because the agents want to get the listings and make the sales,” Spiewak said. “And honestly, since Covid-19, so many of these deals get done over the phone or Zoom, which makes it easier (for the scammers).”
Not surprisingly, Spiewak said law enforcement officials told him many of these criminals use international phone numbers and are based in foreign countries, making them harder to track.
And Spiewak said he was also told that even when scammers are caught, they don’t stop trying, and in fact, are emboldened.
“You’re counting on a lot of things that have to happen for these people to be caught and prosecuted,” Spiewak said.
Grossholz said there are some checks and balances that realtors can do, including a system called Forewarn, which he said agents use as real-time verification of who you’re dealing with.
But for landowners, the title company can be only real backstop to catch fraud. Ruzanna Tarannik is an owner and title agent at Agents Choice Title Company in Palm Coast, and she said people in her business have many steps they take to see if the potential buyer is legit.
“First we send out a physical letter, with signature required, to the address on file with the property appraiser,” Tarannik said. “In the letter we say we have received your contract on your lot, we want to make sure it’s actually you, and questions like that. “Then we send an email to the potential buyer, and this is where the red flags start.”
Tarannik said she’ll often hear a wild story from the scammer about having a problem coming to the closing, or that they’re not local and don’t have access to a computer to do a Zoom closing, and other cockamamie stories.
The documents Tarannik said she receives are often totally legit-looking, with stamps and picture ID’s and everything that would be required. Even foreign sellers are able to duplicate very real-looking notarized Embassy documents within minutes of being contacted.
“A few times I’m wondering, ‘there’s no way they could have done it that fast,’” Tarannik said. “But all we can do is stop the sale and flag it with the police, and notify the real buyer. What the police do after that, is up to them.”
So what can sellers like Spiewak do to prevent this? Tarannik had several suggestions, including frequently checking public records against their name, in court documents and on record with the town or county you live in; contact all three of the major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to request credit be blocked, so no third party can use your name for credit checks; and contacting the Internal Revenue Service to put a block on accessing your tax returns.
“Title companies are definitely getting better at stopping these, better at catching them before money changes hands,” Tarannik said of scammers.
Still, Spiewak is frustrated. Even after filing a report with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and having the listing removed, Spiewak said a few weeks later he again saw his Palm Coast lot up for sale, again unauthorized by him.
He again got the listing taken down, but expects to see his lot for sale in the future.
“I almost feel like I’m being harassed, because someone is taking my property and trying to sell it without my knowledge,” Spiewak said. “There needs to be much more training of (real estate agents) and more laws protecting sellers.”
The Florida Legislature took up a possible helpful solution this year, in HB 289, a bill called “Title Fraud Prevention.” The bill would have “Created a pilot program in specified county, required parties provide specified information to property appraiser, required property appraisers to make certain notifications, and required participating property appraiser to provide reports.
But the bill died in the civil justice committee on March 8.
–Michael J. Lewis for FlaglerLive
Karen Turowski says
https://records.flaglerclerk.com/FraudAlert
This is a service provided by Flagler County Clerk of Courts deed registration to be notified if changes have been made to deed records
Raymond Spiewak says
Yes, that is a very important service. I have registered for this service, but it only notifies you AFTER a fraudulent sale has transacted and does not prevent it from occurring.
Keep Flagler Beautiful says
I would love to know why a bill protecting property owners from this outrageous new form of crime, which is proliferating all over America, was not passed. What could have possibly been the objection to it?
Shark says
Another thank you to the Florida Republican Leadership !!! It’s no good if it benefits them !!!
Joe D says
This is so INCREDIBLY FRIGHTENING! I keep checking on the value of my home, by keeping a SEARCH active for my type of home, in my zip code, and I FREQUENTLY do a SEARCH of my property to get an estimate of current value. I guess since I get daily “check out this home,” emails, I’m better prepared, to pick-up my own home being suddenly listed for “SALE”on-screen!
It’s still incredible that even with forged documents, it could be this easy to list (and actually “sell”), a property fraudulently….causes chills up my spine!
It’s UNFORTUNATE that the Florida legislature allowed potential legislation to die in committee. Of course when you are limiting LGBTQ rights, punishing Disney for expressing their free speech rights, and guaranteeing the RIGHT of Floridians to buy 5 gallon containers of WINE, I can SEE how they could not prioritize property sale FRAUD legislation ( that was SARCASM, readers).
Brian says
Sick people. Imagine if they were to use that focus and ingenuity to run a legit business.
Alice says
Realtor Agency need to do more research before selling a lot by a scammer. I would asked for a clear title up front before listing a land sale. This maybe a way to stop the scammers.
Atwp says
Hope they will not take your land.
Pat F. says
Simple solution.
Contact the Flagler County Clerk’s office and For FREE, will place a hold on any address change or for sale issue on your property, home or lot.
Raymond Spiewak says
Hi Pat. I’ve spoken at length with the Flagler County Clerk’s office and what you suggest is not possible. They have been trying to be very helpful, but besides the notification of a transaction (actual sale and deed change AFTER it occurs), they can not place a ‘hold’ on any sale of your property. And only specific owners such as law enforcement can have their personal details like name and mailing address blocked from public view. Similar with Title companies… while some like Agent’s Choice are diligent at trying to prevent fraud, there are over 20 other Title Companies in the area with various policies on how diligent they are in preventing fraud.
Atwp says
Hope I’m using the right word. Shatters do worse. They take a person house and set up shop and say it is their house. Somehow they get false documents and take your house. It is very expensive and all most impossible to get them out. The sad thing is most of them destroy the property which is another expense for the property owner. I did learn when a swatter is in your house, you call the cops, don’t use the word swatter otherwise the cops will say it is a civil matter. Use the burglar or some one is breaking into my home, then you will get some police attention. The sad thing is a lot of home owners lose everything and have an expensive bill to pay. I hope I used the right word, you all get the point.
Laurel says
Atwp: I believe the word is squatters, but I did get your point, and I appreciate your advice about using the word “burglar” over “squatter”. Clever! It may not work, though, if they claim to get mail at your house. They know all the angles. Squatters are notoriously hard to remove, and you will get little to no help from authorities, not because they don’t want to help, but because the law protects squatters. We found our squatter a new roommate. I guess he didn’t like the guy, because he moved out the next day.
I hate thieves. They’re scum.
The situation I came across a couple times, is all of a sudden, we get mail from someone who never lived at our house, including “Welcome to the neighborhood” mail. That keeps me on my toes. Sucky people.
James says
I’ve been receiving junk mail addressed to someone who may or may not have lived in my home prior to my purchasing it ever since I moved in.
I’ve tried many times at the post office to have a stop put on the mail associated with this person, but to no avail.
Thanks for the heads up… I always thought it was a potential problem, now I’m sure.
Laurel says
James: I’m not sure it’s a problem, but I’m not taking any chances! No, the Post Office is of no help here. Junk mail is junk mail. The difference is if the junk mail states ” Mr/Ms So and So or Current Resident” the PO will do nothing, and you will continue to get the junk mail. If the address states “Mr/Ms So and So” only, you can write on it “Post Master: The person does not live here, return to sender” and leave it to be picked up by your mail carrier. After a while, the PO gets the hint, as does the sender and your mail carrier. The rest of the Mr/Ms So and So or Current Resident mail hits the circular file.
If you get a “Welcome to the Neighborhood” packet addressed to a stranger, try to call one of the advertiser’s and ask how to contact the packet organizer. The advertisers are wasting their money addressing to the wrong person/s. I called, and emailed, the Chamber of Commerce but they never responded. So much for their help!
Ms. So and So’s mail stopped after I sent a couple letters back. I get enough junk mail, don’t need someone else’s too, but I’m no longer getting that either.
James says
Hi Laurel.
Yes, some of the mail was/is traditional junk mail, but a lot of it was credit card offers, hospital bills and the like, addressed to this particular person. This was over the course of years. Even some of the junk mail was addressed not as current resident, but to this person in particular… for instance, the concert schedule of the Volusia-Daytona Symphony Orchestra.
I continually bring this matter up with the post office, but they’ve never resolved the issue. The matter was at first just an annoyance, but about six months ago I received a change of address request confirmation for this person in the mail. Problem was it was a request apparently put in by this individual for ALL mail at my address to be rerouted somewhere. I once again took this (and some of this guy’s mail I had been collecting over the months) to the post office and told them I did NOT request this, nor do I know this person. They finally seemed to take the matter a little more seriously… I requested that they put a report in to the post master andI think they did, along with canceling the change of address. But after about a month I once again began receiving mail addressed to this person… in fact I just received a letter today!
Incredible!!!
Laurel says
James: That’s not so good! Actually, I got a Ms. So and So or current resident large catalog yesterday. Too bad for the company, it looks like an expensive advertisement to publish and mail. Went straight to the recycle bin.
I’m sorry to say this, but the Palm Coast Post Office is the worse I have ever had to deal with. When we moved temporarily to Flagler Beach while our house was worked on, I had our mail forwarded to Flagler Beach. Even though we had owned the FB house for years, we got a ton of mail, and junk mail, for various people. Some whom we knew lived there at one time, and many more whom we had never heard of. Meanwhile, all my magazine subscriptions never made it to the FB house. What else was missing?
I went to the PO to try and stop it, but all I got was zippo help. It was so bad, I think I was about a pinch away from being kicked out of the facility! Also, the service was so bad, and since our house under construction was a dozen miles away, I had the forwarding canceled, and collected the mail in the Hammock. My magazine subscriptions started showing up again.
Either way, PCPO should be a little more mindful of possible fraud, and when something is sent back to the Postmaster, it should enter a data file. That should stop personal mail from going to the wrong address. I believe it’s illegal to toss personal mail.
Maybe the answer is to collect all Mr/Ms So and So mail, current residents or not, bundle it all up and keep dropping the bundle in the mailbox addressed to the Postmaster! Maybe they need a stronger hint.
Kay says
Laurel, DeSantis just signed a bill about evictions… evicting squatters that have chosen to enter illegally into a home. Go and watch the recent video of Sheriff Grady Judd in Polk County… he just had his sheriff officers evict / arrest 12 varmints from a house in the area. The owners live in a different state and they woke up to their cameras chiming at their house in Polk county one morning ..they called the Sheriff immediately and Sheriff Grady sent his finest to arrest them!!! Good luck everyone. Look at California the home owners and B&B (VEBO) home owners have no rights to their property but the squatters sure do have the rights to invade.. squat in the home owners house / property and the home owners must continue to pay the mortgage… utilities taxes and any repairs and maintenance to their homes… while the squatters live a Free High Life at someone else’s expense. Crazy.
Laurel says
Not only did it happen to us, it happened to a relative in Daytona. Both squatters in our Palm Beach County house, and the relative’s Daytona house were addicts. We found syringes in the house, but the police said that it could be said that we planted the paraphernalia there! The squatter in the Daytona house took longer than our house, with our introduced, ex-prisoner roommate! If it hadn’t been for the new roommate, we would have been screwed for months.
Well, hopefully the new law will make a difference. It is a real problem. Meanwhile, real estate people need to be more responsible and do just a little more research and and make a little more effort to contact the real owners, or share the responsibility of cost.
James says
Suggestion… get a hold of that person who wanted to buy the property and sell it.
I’m thinking the whole “ageing in place” concept is a much better alternative.
Just say’n.
Denali says
Recently sold a second house in Palm Coast to a cash buyer, no real estate agent involved. Aside from my name, address, phone and SSN the title company did not ask for anything which would identify me as the true owner. I could have been anyone who happened to possess the data of the proper owner. The proceeds were sent to a new account with an on-line bank where nothing more than a driver’s license number was required to open the account. It is just too easy for someone to sell your property without your knowledge.
James says
Do you feel you’ve gotten a good deal by going that route? Did you consult an attorney before hand?
No need to be explicit in the details… I’m just curious, I’ve gotten cash offer mailers as well.
Just asking.
Denali says
James – Be really careful with those cash offers received in the mail. We looked into a couple which turned out to be very questionable or promised a high buyout but had a zillion ‘weasel clauses’ they could use at closing to cut the price. One actually presented an offer less than we paid during the 2008/2010 price collapse.
We sat down and took an honest look at our house. What upgrades were needed – the kitchen was original to the house, we had been working our way through the house but there were still several things to do. We came up with a market value after after everything would be done, subtracted the cost of the improvements and were left with what we felt was a reasonable price and one we could live with financially. We mentioned this number to a friend, word got around and a buyer stepped forward. Price was never an issue, they paid what we were asking.
No agent fees paid, An attorney, who worked for the title folks, reviewed the documents. All-in-all a good experience.
James says
Thanks for the info Denali… I’ll keep your suggestions in mind if I decide to go that route. It’s definitely not something to rush into… it’s not like I’m selling an old lawn mower! :-)
Peace.
Ray W. says
Thank you, Denali.
Is it fair to argue that many banking and financial reforms were enacted in response to the Great Depression? That some of the reforms added to the overall cost of banking and other financial transactions?
When my parents came of age, cash transactions predominated. Checking existed but was limited in use. Banking overhead was high. Many tellers, many small community banks. National banking was non-existent. Regulatory schemes were statewide in origin and effect, leading to various methods of relatively inefficient banking between state and regions.
Over time, banking changed. Checking transactions flourished for a time. Credit cards became prevalent. Today, debit cards are falling in use as internet banking via cell phones thrives. Each improvement was designed to lessen the overall cost of many types of personal and business financial transactions. Banks that once employed rows of tellers now have two or three on duty on even the busiest of days. Federal laws were enacted to allow the rise of national and now international banking systems. The overall overhead costs of banking continued to drop, but at each stage of efficiency the opportunities for fraud, for theft, for graft, increased.
Now, what you, Denali, describe has become increasingly possible. Deregulation has benefitted almost all of us, but when one of us falls prey to the increasingly sophisticated methods of theft made possible by the deregulatory nature of today’s banking and financial transactions, the financial impact can be catastrophic to those growing few. The school board seems to have been defrauded for many thousands of dollars due to one of the many types of fraud made available to the thieves of today.
It may be that our state and federal legislators are behind the curve with respect to passing laws to address novel methods of fraudulent crime. Should municipal or county governments spend more to hire and train detectives to respond to the increasing threat to the vulnerable among us? Have we been shifting the costs of preventing crime away from banks and financial institutions and placing the financial burden back on local communities? Have we come full circle. Away from community toward national and international banking, only to go back to community policing to combat international crime?
James says
Well Ray. I guess if I go that route myself… cash offer, as is, etc… I will consult with an attorney.
Always had in the past in the disposition of real estate property, I don’t know why I would now.
Why be pennywise, yet pound foolish.
Thanks. 👍
Flatsflyer says
Two very simple solutions; arrest the Realtor for dealing 7n stolen property, castle doctrine (stand you ground).
Denali says
Why blame the realtor? I could perhaps see the title company having some complicity when they did the title search but they rely on the paperwork supplied by the county and the “owner”. No one here to go after.
And just who are you going to ‘stand your ground’ against? The innocent buyer who was duped or the fraudulent seller somewhere where he will never be found?
Laurel says
Real Estate agents should make the simple effort of looking up the property at the Property Appraiser’s website, and contacting the actual property owner. These website give the situs address as well as the owner’s home address. They are negligent if they do not do this.