Beware of Scams

I want to inform everyone in regards to a scary fraud situation that happened to me this week. In the past few months I have sold a few lots in Benders Landing Estates. I had recently closed on a lot and received a call from an out of state seller wanting me to sell his lot. I pulled the tax records, sent comps etc. and they decided to list the property with me. There were two individuals listed as the owners on the tax record. I had both their emails (gmail accounts which reflected the names of the owners on the tax record) and sent all the listing paperwork via docusign for signatures and put the lot on the market with a signed listing agreement.

The sign was installed on the lot, photos taken and the property was listed on HAR. The lot was on the market For 17 days and we received a cash offer. Both buyer and seller were going to be signing remotely. The docs were sent to the buyer and seller on Tuesday and all parties signed with a notary and FedEx the original docs to the title company for Wednesday delivery.

I received a phone call Tuesday, late afternoon from a man informing me that he was the property owner of the lot and asked me who gave me permission to put a sign on his property. Immediately I knew something was not right and I notified the title company. The title company received all the docs , drivers licenses and everything back on Wednesday to complete the transaction for funding. The title companys legal department investigated this all day yesterday and communicated with the man that called me Tuesday afternoon and after extensive research concluded fraud. There was no loan on the lot, no payoff had to be ordered. The seller information sheet that the fake seller provided had the forwarding address of the real property owner. He provided bank wiring instructions for disbursement after the file was funded. Everything looked normal, no red flags whatsoever.
Yesterday, the title company delayed everything and told the fake seller their system was down and the wire would go out the next morning. The fake seller called the title company numerous times yesterday inquiring about the funding and sent me multiple text messages in regards to an update on the funding. He even sent me a text and thanked me for my hard work on the sale of his property. The legal department of the title company called the fake seller this morning and informed him that they were not going to be funding the file. The legal department researched and found the notary information that was provided on the documents was fraud. The title company communicated with the notary that notarized the documents (for the fake seller) and she had no clue and did not notarize the documents.

Luckily, I received that call on Tuesday afternoon from the real owner of the property. If it was one day later then the fake seller would have had 270K of the buyers money wired into his bank account. Everything was typical of a normal transaction and I had no clue or never suspected a thing. The next time a seller calls me to sell their property from outside of Houston I will definitely do more research and be more cautious.

Be cautious and stay safe ?