At least $9 million worth of property was put up for sale in San Luis Obispo County at one point this year, but not by the rightful owner.
According to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, scammers used a quick and easy method to sell about 30 undeveloped properties in the county to real estate agents. Eligible real estate is real estate that is free of mortgages, liens, or other encumbrances. The entire scheme looks and feels authentic.
Here’s how it works: Scammers list properties owned by others and tell real estate agents that they need to list them in order to sell quickly and for cash. Escrow documents are notarized with a fake notary stamp, and all communication with agents is done by phone or email. They have no plans to hold an in-person autograph session. Compromised bank accounts are used to generate revenue from sales.
“Typically what we see is vacant, undeveloped land. This is an important factor because we don’t have tenants that are concerned about this,” said San Luis Obispo County Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobros. Told.
Since learning about this scam earlier this year, the SLO County District Attorney’s Office, in conjunction with local real estate agents, has successfully stopped approximately $9 million in fraudulent attempts to sell properties in SLO County. It was announced that. There are approximately 3,000 such properties in the county, so this particular scam is unlikely to end anytime soon.
“Right now, we don’t know the actual losses. It’s a better scenario to avoid losses in the beginning and deal with them proactively than to catch up at the end,” Dobros said. “This is a statewide problem, and it’s a national problem. Unfortunately, in other jurisdictions, this scam has worked very well.”
If you own unencumbered vacant land, there are several things you can do to determine if your land is being fraudulently put up for sale. You can easily search the internet for a property’s address to see if it’s listed on trusted sites like Zillow, Redfin, or MLS.com without your knowledge. Contact the SLO County Assessor’s Office online or call (805) 781-5643 to verify that the mailing address for all your properties is correct. You may also contact SLO County District Attorney Investigator Eric Vitale at (805) 781-5868.
At this time, the Crown Prosecution Service cannot say whether any arrests have been made in connection with the scam, but they have sent letters to property owners who may be targeted with instructions on what to do if they are concerned.