Good news by CBC that home selling fraudsters were caught! In this specific case, the homeowners were away in China. They probably tried to rent out their house in Scarborough. The fraudsters pretended to be renters and got access to their home. They forged ID and documents to impost as the homeowner trying to sell the house.
How did they get caught? The bank notified the real estate lawyer that the bank account of the seller is brand-new without any prior transactions. The lawyer knocked at neighbours’ doors to investigate who the homeowners are and found that they are actually overseas.
I tipped my hat to the bank and the lawyer. Good job! Especially the lawyer who took the effort and time to look into it. He said most lawyers would just go through the transaction without going to extra steps. He also raised the alarm the forged documents and ID are very sophisticated.
Still very concerning! I agreed that most lawyers or realtor would not take the trouble to do so much investigative work to verify the identify of the home sellers especially now the sellers are much fewer thanks to the high interest rate. The transaction volume is greatly reduced. People working in the real estate industry must make much less than revenue before.
This lawyer is far and between. At least the bank is doing their job on this case. Perhaps this a progress in the right direction. Perhaps there should be more regulation. The banks need to notify the lawyer if the bank account is relatively new. The lawyers and realtors have to take extra steps to verify the identify of the home sellers. More trainings and guideline should be developed by the industry association to prevent this type of frauds.
Worthfy Financial Literacy Counselling 