Latest / Financial Survival Network / Fraud, Scams & Theft Are Branching Out -- Robert Siciliano #5881

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Fraud, Scams & Theft Are Branching Out -- Robert Siciliano #5881 · Financial Survival Network

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And keep in mind that if any of you have ever received the notification from
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any entity, corporation, government agency that your social Security number was compromised right
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leading to potential identity theft. And generally when you received that notification, you
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are provided the option of receiving you one or two years of free credit monitoring.
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You are also at risk for this type of a scam. So criminals
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use the identity of the homeowner right using your social Security number in many cases
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to sell this home posing as you right from underneath you. You were listening
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to Carrie Lets's Financial Survival Network where you get valuable information you just can't find
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anywhere else to thrive in today's trying times. You need the Financial Survival Network
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now more than ever. Go to Financial Survival and Network dot com and get
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your free newsletter and gift. Financial Survival Network now more than ever, And
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welcome you are listening to watching the Financial Survival Network. I'm your host,
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Carrie Lutz and hey, it's mid August, and you know, just when
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you thought it was safe to go outside, there's a new scam. And
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it used to be once upon a time you couldn't steal a house. You
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couldn't steal land, you know, things that were permanently affixed. Was very
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difficult. You couldn't just march off with a house, I guess, unless
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you put it on a trailer and slapped it away. But nowadays the biggest,
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one of the hottest new scams is stealing land, and especially vacant land.
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Because it's vacant, nobody's checking it out, nobody cares about it until
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you go to sell it and you find out you don't own it anymore.
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I mean, it's really fascinating these scammers. They are they're thinking of new
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things, new scams twenty four seven. And Robert Siciliana, who has spent
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a large part of his life breaking these scams and informing you about them,
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is with us now, Robert, it's great to have you back. So
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land scams. Who would have thought, yeah, so, you know,
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this particular scam is really nefarious due to the fact that many municipalities throughout the
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country, right, so you have your you know, states do things a
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certain way, and then you have various municipalities statewide that might do things a
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bit differently. It's how they record information, it's how they put it out
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there on the web. For anybody to see. And then from there how
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anybody can access those documents, deeds, titles, and so forth and change
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them, manipulate them, claim them as their own, and so on,
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either by stealing identities or simply by saying that they purchased it. And throughout
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the country these scams are proliferating now. Certain municipalities have systems in place to
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alert their constituents that somebody has taken out a deed, somebody has registered this
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land, somebody has made a sale on this property, and so on,
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but many don't. And when you see various services that might alert you on
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the side for like twenty five bucks a month, like a whole title lock
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type of thing, they may or may not even work in your state or
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in your municipality. So I think it's important that you kind we kind of
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dig in a little bit understand what these scams look like, what the right
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flags might be, and ultimately what things you can and should be doing to
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reduce your risk. All right, And as we're speaking, I just want
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you to know I've been meaning to do this, and I'm so happy that
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we're connecting here because you made me actually do it. I am on the
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Palm Beach County Clerk's office website, and I am now signing up for a
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fraud alert for my house just in case somebody tries to take out a mortgage
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or tries to sell it out from underneath me. So Kerry, do me
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a favorite, like while you're there, kind of read through it out loud,
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like, let everybody know what that looks like. It sounds like what
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it's warning you of. Okay. Property fraud Alert Registration Property fraud Alert is
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an electronic notification service that alerts a subscriber via email every time a land records
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document is recorded with the requested name, so they're not so much doing it
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by the address, but by your name, so obviously in order, and
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that is effective because obviously for somebody to steal my property, they got to
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convey it from me to a third party. And then it's just putting in
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your email address and they want parcel number, of course, which I have
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to go look up, so I can't do this now. But you enter
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the address you want a monitor and then and then you send a confirmation email
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and then you're set. I guess now there's a couple of things about that
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that I want to point out. So not every county is going to have
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that system in place, So it depended where where you are listening audience,
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viewing audience, you may or may not have that option. There may be
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third party subscriptions that you can pay for a LifeLock, is it right,
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Yeah, exactly, So not every municipality throughout the country has that service.
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Now, I think it's really important, like right now that you go online,
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any all of you to go online and find out if in fact you
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have that option. Now, a couple of things. Number one, what
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you want to make sure of is that nobody can actually monitor your indeed your
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property in place of you, right, you know, like if somebody else
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out there poses as as as a kerry that when it had signed themselves up,
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that they would get that suitation, that's problematic. You want to do
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that before somebody else does it. All of you if you have that option,
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yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I see your point.
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And maybe that's why you need a third party service and you actually need to
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pay for it, because we know that to govern mints are often very lackadaisical.
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But I didn't bother putting in the legal description and whatever else they wanted
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a parcel number, but it's still confirmed it and said that I am I
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am now protected, Robert, thanks to you. Perfect. So let me
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define what a vacant land scam is. So it is an umbrella term that
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applies to any attempt to froudgling its sell in real estate that the scammer does
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not own. So, while undeveloped land is the most common focus of these
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scams, criminals may attempt to sell residential or commercial buildings, condominiums, or
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homes. So it's not just the vacant land, although vacant land is an
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attractive option. Scammers begin by researching properties through public records, very simple to
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do because of course they are public. They first look for properties that are
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free of mortgages and leans, and then they look for properties that are likely
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to be unoccupied, undeveloped and being unoccupied empty. Long term rentals and out
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of season vacation vacation rentals are also among the most pro popular for these types
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of scams. Yeah, So they're looking for properties that you don't see every
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single day of the week, right, They're looking for you know, properties
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that will you know that are I don't want to say neglected, because that
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is the wrong term for it, but not monitored like you know, like
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a second home like. Yeah, And keep in mind that if any of
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you have ever received the notification from any entity, corporation, government agency,
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then your social Security number was compromised, right, leading to potential identity theft.
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And generally when you received that notification, you are provided the option of
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receiving you know, one or two years of free credit monitoring. You are
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also at risk for this type of a scam. So criminals use the identity
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of the homeowner right using your social Security number in many cases to sell this
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home, posing as you right from underneath you. Yeah, and being a
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recovering attorney, I can tell you that you're generally your title insurance, which
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if you have a mortgage thanks require you to ensure the title for unrecorded leans
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and judgments and other stuff that can come up. You're not covered in your
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title insurance for this. Yeah. And you would think, you know,
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spending you know, two or three four thousand dollars for a title and shrugs
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policy, It would be I actually invested in title and shrugs policy, you
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know, by default, when I bought the house that I'm in right now
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years ago and within you know, three or four years of purchasing the property,
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we had somebody that claimed adverse possession over a portion of our properties that
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are covered that you were covered for. And man, I think that title
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insurance might have dropped. I mean, I know they dropped well into six
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figures. I don't know the exact number. I know it was in excess
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of one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars that final number was, but that
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was like the best two or three four thousand dollars that I've ever spent in
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my entire life. And what you need to do is title insurance claims,
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especially now that all of the court records and land records and lean records have
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been digitized, are extraordinarily rare. And when it's expensive property, the title
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insurance company will require you to have a survey which can point out a potential
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adverse possession claim. And I've even had it where they walk the property to
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see if there were any easements or something that weren't recorded. But the number
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of claims is so rare, and basically title insurance is a way to print
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money for these insurance companies. They're multi billion dollar entities. They keep getting
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bigger and bigger and more and more powerful, and the states require you to
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have title insurance, and the federal government does. If you have a mortgage,
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the bank will not write you a mortgage without title insurance. But all
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this is academic for property theft because you're not covered for it because since any
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event that actually happened after you purchased property, title insurance only covers you for
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claims that arose actually prior to you purchasing the property, even though they might
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be pursued after you purchase it. So basically, probably LifeLock in these companies
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will start ensuring you and ensuring title once. Once this thing really takes off
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here, you know. There, I think it was Bill O'Reilly was advertising
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a service to h that would monitor the title of your home. It's a
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real concern, but it's easily provided for. Yeah, you know, while
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we're talking about title and those organizations, you know, it brings up,
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uh mortgage closing, real estate fraud. So in addition to you know,
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vacant land scams. I have been speaking quite a bit recently revolving around wire
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fraud as it pertains to mortgage closings, and we're seeing in a number of
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pockets of the country where criminals are monitoring MLS transactions. They'll see that they'll
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they'll monitor the MLS transactions because a they can log in due to the fact
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that they compromise say a real estate agent's identity and they had of his or
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her user name and password for the MLS, and so they're able to log
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into the MLS and they're able to see all these various transactions and they know
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that particular closings are you under contract, houses are under contract. And what
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they do them is they will spend time finding out who the seller is,
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finding out who the buyer is, finding out of course, who the real
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estate agent is. And once they know who the players are, they get
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inside the actual transaction, either by phishing the real estate agent, so by
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phishing the real estate agent, then get inside his or her email posing as
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Google for that matter, and they get inside the email. Now they are
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inside the estate agents email using a pass code, using it being their email
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address itself pass code whatever it was that was phished through the scam that with
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the fish er, the the the scammer was posing as Google. Once they're
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inside the email, now they monitor all the scent and received emails and over
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time they begin to figure out, Okay, this is the buyer, this
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is the seller, this is the particular property. And now they see that
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the real estate agents communicating with the buyer, and they will then communicate with
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the buyer, posing ads the real estate agent right, and now they begin
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to tell and ask the buyer information revolving around the closing and in order to
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speed up the transaction. Here are wiring instructors closing and then it's gone.
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The buyer receiving a communication from the real estate agent, thinking that it is
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the real estate agent, because well, it's the real estate agents email from
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an account, from an email address that they've communicated with dozens of times over
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the past you know, month, two months, three months, whatever,
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has no reason to believe that there's anything you know, gammy going on because
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it's the real estate agents email. It's a thread that they've seen before.
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The buyer then goes and performs the duties based on the instructions that the real
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estate agent provided, and that dollar amount could be anywhere from you know,
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ten thousand to a million dollars, yeah, or no fortune. That's why
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these two title companies now actually calling up confirming this stuff and confirming the wires
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and everything else, because they could theoretically be left holding the bag. But
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the problem is is that that same wire fraud may not go through. The
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title insurance company may have no idea that this is happening, the real estate
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agent may have no idea that this is happening. Any of the lawyers involved.
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Why I did this is happening because it's all happening between either a compromise
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title companies email, a compromise lawyers email, a compromised real estate agents email,
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and the buyer. And it's funny because there's a realtor here in Palm
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Beach County that I work with on occasion, and all of a sudden,
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I start getting texted from somebody who's pretending to be the head of the agency,
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but I know that the language is off, and I like call her
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up and I say, what's going on here? I'm getting this. She
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says, yeah, we got somebody poosing here, sending texts out, spoofing
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texts and spoof text or is a dangerous poofed emails? Robert, You know,
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yeah, And that's easy to do because right on your iPhone, right
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on your Android device, you can get access to apps that will smoove the
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phone number in which you're calling from to be any global extension, any phone
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number with an actualent tip of the individual or name of the company, along
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with whatever that phone number might be. Caller ID spoofing is a common tactic
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the criminals use, and there are a feed based services online in through the
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app stores to be illegal and the telemarketing guys do this spoofing all the time.
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Oh gee, I got a area code. It's right by mine the
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exchange. They must be in my town. It must be somebody I know.
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You pick it up and then they're pitching you. So you've got to
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be basically, don't answer any calls if you don't know who it is,
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all right, because it's probably going to be a scam or a telemarketer.
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And don't send any money out based on a email without first doing a voice
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verification with the person you know. Yeah. So the mortgage closing wire fraud
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scam is reaching billions of dollars a year. Wow. And the basic tips
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that revolve around prevention basically end up in the hands of the buyer because it's
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the buyer that holds the bag. They're old in the money, so they're
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in and while title companies are real estate agents and attorneys, they all have
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their due diligence that they need to be performing. It's the buyer, It's
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you and I that are the potential victims. It's our bank accounts that ultimately
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a compromise. So all of you paying any attention any time in the course
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of your life going forward that you're in the process of buying a property,
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and it means communicating with somebody on the peripheral of a closing for a mortgage
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related transaction. Number One, simply enough, never ever, ever wire money
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to any bank account unless you have gone through every possible channel you can to
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determine it is a legit communication, and that means calling every single person involved
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in the transaction to confirm the legitimacy a of the request for a wire transfer
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and be to the designated account in which that it is being sent to.
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It is under the control of all of the professionals in which that you know,
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like and trust, and in some cases I recommend going into the actual
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offices all those involved, meeting with the people, the real estate agent,
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the title attorney, the lawyer, whoever it might be the buyer the seller
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meeting in person, those who ultimately benefit from those transactions, opposed to just
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communicating over the phone, just communicating via email, actually meeting on site in
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parson, those transactions being done on site. Listen, you know what is
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it Like thirty forty years ago, mortgages weren't processed unless you're actually in person,
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out of say things and loan, right yeah, right, Today they're
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done virtually digitally. No people ever, you know, see each other,
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touch each other, smell each other, nothing. It's all done completely anonymously
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across the country. That's dangerous and it's ripe for fraud completely eight. And
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you know, in certain states, like where you have attorney states, it's
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actually another layer of protection because then the attorney gets the funds. It's up
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to him, he's ensured if he screws up, hopefully, And you know,
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this is this is serious stuff here we're talking about, you know,
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really serious. And I can't express this boy even in an even in an
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attorney based state like Harre in Massachusetts where I'm at again, like just because
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that's the case, and just because that attorney if if he or she gets
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hoodwinked it's but it's the buyer ultimately, like if if if the bad guy
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skirts that closing attorney and goes directly to the buyer, No, no insurance
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is going to fix that, you know. So let's talk about the red
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flags. Are gotting a vacant land scam and look for so a couple of
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things, things that you as a as an attorney, as a buyer,
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as a seller, as a real estate agent, whoever you are in the
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process. Things to look out for, Like the seller refuses to meet in
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person. Uh, this should always be a red flag for any trains action.
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Scammers may claim to be too busy or to be out of the country
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and will claim that they cannot attend the closing. They'll also resist a video
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calls and prefer to communicate solely by text or email. That's the same thing
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with like a romance scam, all the same exact thing scams or all the
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rage, all the rage and the pig butchering scam. Man, that is
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a huge one huge and it is the exact Sammo. Right, you meeting
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with somebody online, communicate with them male or female. GAO strength doesn't make
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a difference. You know, you could even be chatting with them, you
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know, either via I AM or even using an actual video call, right,
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and over time you get to know, like and trust that person.
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Heck, you might even be engaging in some virtual sex with this person over
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I avoid that at all costs. But yeah, in over time, you
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beginning to actually develop rail feelings with this person, right for for numerous reasons.
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That's called I've got fishing exactly. And once they try and start talking
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about hey, all in, by the way, I'm making a ton of
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money in crypto. Yeah, you have a bond with this person, Okay,
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and they may turn you on to a legit website where you can actually
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invest some money in. And when I say legit website, like it's a
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fully functional website and it looks like you're making money. But yes, all
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on your money. This is happening like all over the world. One other
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scam that we're going to cover next time, Robert, when we have you
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on next month, business loan scams, all right. I had a member
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of the community asked me about them, and I made the mistake of like
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signing up for one with my phone number. I have gotten probably several thousand
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calls in the past two years. Oh man, I couldn't even believe it.
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And I was like, I was never going to take out these loans.
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I was just exploring it to pass it on. I did a piece
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about it. But you know, they're proliferated and they're just legal loan sharks.
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The ones that are real. They get like twenty five percent a week
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interest with the vig you know. Yeah, and they have you on what
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they consider is their sucker list. Obviously you're heads above the rest. But
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yeah, it's unfortunate because now your your phone's you know, flung. I
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can't get rid of them. You know, I cannot get rid of them.
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So hey, Robert, where do we find you? How do we
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connect with you on the web? So I am a few different spots.
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You know, Robert Ciciliano. You just google Robert Ciciliano roberts in the showt
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com. Yeah, that'll be in the notes. Also, you could see
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you online at protect now LLC dot com, protect now llc dot com or
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Robert Sileano dot com. All right, and in the show notes. Hey
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you've got a question for Robert myself, email k l at carry Lutz dot
25:08
com. We'll get you an answer and while you're on the site Financial Survival
25:12
Network dot com. In the show notes, you'll find the link to Robert's
25:17
sites and sign up for your free newsletter. Robert always a pleasure. Thanks
25:21
for stopping by, HEK youbody appreciate you. Thanks for listening to carry Lutz's
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Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's trying times. For the latest,
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go to Financial Survival Network dot com. Financial Survival Network now more than ever,