A few weeks ago, longtime realtor Chris Anderson got a text from a person who wanted her help. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted to talk to me about selling their land,\u201d she said. \u201cThey said that they lived out of area and they would need to have handholding through the process. And so I said, \u2018Sure, let me help you with that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The impersonator gave her the correct property owner\u2019s name, his wife’s name and their address in Wyoming. They even had a notary and made a fake email account using the property owner\u2019s name for her to send documents to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a sophisticated scammer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Anderson didn\u2019t suspect anything until she noticed the property worth more than $2 million was already listed for sale and the scammer was trying to let it go for $150,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s normally another trigger that either there’s a financial doom coming to them or it’s a scam,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we did is at the very end, I said, \u2018This is great. I’m going to be sending you the DocuSign documents, but before I can, I need to have a copy. Just text me a copy of your driver’s license or a passport, so I can make sure that you truly are the owner of the property.\u2019 They hung right up.\u201d<\/p>\n
County Assessor Jordan Marks said this is happening with tens of thousands of other properties across our county \u2014 most commonly in rural areas, like Julian, Ramona and Alpine.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of common cases are the neighbors down the block that saw that you passed,\u201d he said. \u201cYour kids haven’t taken over the property yet. They live out of state. They don’t know the property\u2019s paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said there are still crooked notaries, but new technology makes it easier than ever for scammers to get one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re seeing with AI and the evolution of technology, people and their personalities are being falsified,” Marks said.<\/p>\n