As more of our worldly functions move online, the robbers follow right behind. Online crime can impact our finances, privacy, moral dignity, reputation, and even our pet dog's privacy.
So it's no surprise that fraudulent scammers have found ways to cheat innocent people with bogus real estate deals.
In an incident this week, I know a family who own a vacant Rapid City home. Unknown to them, it was offered for rent by an out of town "rental agency" on craigslist. I happened to learn of it first, so I contacted the craigslist folks and asked them to remove the fraudulent for-rent ad. A distressed young lady called me asking how to deal with it. She had wired $1,000 to persons unknown, out of town, to lock in the extremely low rental rate, "before some one else rents it."
In another recent incident involved friend of mine who is a real estate agent in Rapid City. When she went to check on the vacant home for her homeseller clients, she discovered that a bogus firm had "sold" the home to an innocent victim family, then even helped them to move in!
How do we confront this issue? Stop using the Internet to help people find homes to buy? Heck no, we're just barely beyond the 1960's now, in our real estate industry's fledgling toe-in-the-water use of the Internet. I have two recommendations.
First, deal with a real estate professional, if you are at all nervous about buyers who exaggerate their mortgage lending readiness, or worried about letting the public come walk through your home to observe where valuables are stored, or if you don't have time to restart the complex deal-Closing process that requires two dozen people in 10 government bodies and companies to complete three dozen tasks on time, in the right sequence, without do-over errors.
Second, follow craigslist's very emphatic admonitions to deal locally, never wire funds, be cautious about cashier checks, and most of all, people from out of town who connect with you over the Internet. (http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams).
Please help spread the word. Ask your friends to alert their younger and elder friends and family members that any online transaction can be a risk, especially if they're tinkering around on their own. Any questions? You can call me. Lee Alley. 605.863.0806.
Posted by Lee Alley, www.BHhomes.INFO, Rapid City, Black Hills, SD at 9:52 AM
Labels: Find Your Next Home, Market Conditions
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