Scam buyer inquiries tend to come in waves for Patrick Southern, a top SERHANT. agent in Hudson County, New Jersey. Southern doesn’t know exactly why this happens, but he has a few theories.
Patrick Southern | SERHANT.
“I think the scammers just sweep through markets,” Southern told Inman. “They say, ‘Let’s mess with this market, and then we’ll roll out and roll into the next one.”
Southern has picked up on the pattern enough that, when it starts to happen, he tells himself, Here it comes. “I had a wave two months ago that lasted a couple of days,” he said. “Of course, we make the attempt to flush it out. Then it passes.”
If Southern’s theory is true, then real estate scammers are like a tornado that drops down across markets and tries to cause as much damage as possible. And while Southern hasn’t been swept up into any storms, many agents have.
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Real estate agents are increasingly on the front lines of fraud prevention. The biggest threat is wire fraud, often driven by email compromise. More than 1 in 4 homebuyers and sellers are targeted for wire fraud during a transaction, and there are more than 13,000 victims annually, according to FBI data and CertifID’s State of Wire Fraud report.
Agents are most exposed through unsecured email chains and inconsistent verification processes. The risk is growing as fraudsters use more sophisticated methods, including AI-generated messages and impersonation.
Even when agents aren’t directly responsible, they often bear the reputational and legal fallout. As a result, their role is increasingly shifting beyond advising clients to actively managing risk and serving as a checkpoint to ensure buyers don’t send funds to the wrong place.
The easiest way to weed out fake buyers instantly
Fraud attempts are a regular nuisance for agents like Southern, and while especially pronounced during the pandemic, they continue to increase. Southern believes that residential real estate is a prime target because the industry is busier and often more chaotic than commercial real estate.
“Residential real estate is very transaction-heavy,” he said. “I had 376 contracts last year. But that doesn’t include the thousands of leads and inquiries on top of that. In residential, the pace can be fast and furious.”
Southern said scammers typically target “low-hanging fruit,” but the attempts are easy to identify if you are aware of them.
“Most are internet-generated, and they appear suspicious right away,” he said. “For example, I’ll see near-identical inquiries across multiple listings. And I’ll think, ‘Why would they be asking about all of these unrelated properties?’”
The next move, he said, is that scammers will immediately push for a Zoom or Google Meet video call. Sometimes, they pose as foreign investors who flatter Southern on his real estate expertise. But the biggest red flag is that they “refuse real, human connection at all costs,” he said.
“The most effective defense is to always insist on a live phone conversation,” Southern said. “Most scammers will disappear instantly after that.”
For Southern, the urgency of most scammers is also a red flag. He believes that most buyers don’t benefit from seeing a property instantly.
“If the buyer is real, an initial phone call is always helpful,” he said. “However, there is a whole new, younger generation of agents who are so tied to technology and text messaging, so this may not occur to them as often.”
How scammers exploit eager newbie agents
Therein lies one main weakness that real estate scammers may try to exploit, according to Southern. Younger agents may be untrained in the industry and more desperate due to a lack of deal flow. Southern said that in Hudson County, New Jersey, the average agent sold roughly 3.5 properties last year.
“What’s interesting with real estate is that you see the glamorous nature of it portrayed on TV reality shows,” he said, “but what you don’t see is the extreme hard work and the extreme rejection.”
So, when a lead comes in, Southern said some inexperienced agents may feel a rush of adrenaline and find themselves in a vulnerable situation.
“Newer agents are definitely more susceptible to fraud,” he said. “Residential is loaded with part-time agents who may be distracted. So it may be easy to get caught off guard if you’re green and have a lack of deal flow.”
Southern said he hasn’t experienced more sophisticated forms of fraud, such as “deepfakes” and voice cloning, though he expects those methods to increase in the future.
“We flush it out quickly,” he said. “We don’t follow their links, and we don’t let it get to the next step.” That primarily means he insists on phone calls and doesn’t agree to meet with them on Zoom via the links they provide.
Serving every lead while staying on guard
Mike Fabbri, a top luxury agent for The Agency in New York City and Connecticut, sees similar waves of scammer inquiries from fake buyers. “I think every agent has had this experience and, as an industry, we’re operating with more caution,” he told Inman.
Mike Fabbri | The Agency
As a broker, Fabbri said his first priority is always the safety and security of his clients. It’s also his responsibility to respond to every inquiry and not discriminate. He said that makes it tricky, and with artificial intelligence, some text-generated scam inquiries can be quite convincing.
“Some are better than others,” he said. “I’ve never really had a close call or been in danger, but I’ve had scammers do as much as book showings and never show up.”
Recently, Fabbri encountered a scammer with a complete online social profile. They sent a photo and a name, but it turned out to be the identity of a broker in Tennessee. It was easy to sniff out when he did some research online.
“They will sometimes use very common names like John Smith,” Fabbri said. “Some people may just be bored. With others, it’s hard to know their motivations. You see this a lot with online dating, too. Any area where there’s that potential for human connection and the possibility of deception.”
Urgency, emotion and then, silence
There are always a few red flags that tip Fabbri off. “The first communication usually comes with a lot of urgency and emotion,” he said. “The cadence of communication is also a red flag. It’s strong at first, then trickles out.”
Like Southern, Fabbri said the first goal is always to get the person on the phone or to meet in a public, neutral setting — never at the property. “The goal is to always verify and never let them in,” he said. “Meet them first in public before meeting at the property.”
He said there has been a noticeable increase in scam inquiries, which tend to occur when the market is slower. Scammers may try to take advantage of listing agents who may be more desperate to get deals done.
But the challenge isn’t necessarily new. Fraud attempts especially surged during the pandemic, Fabbri said, when most showings were virtual.
Luxury properties are more attractive targets, though Fabbri joked that every property in New York City could be described as luxury. “But at the high end, we are more equipped to deal with this because of less inbound traffic,” he said.
Fabbri said dealing with scam inquiries is frustrating and a waste of time, but it proves the value of real estate agents. “We’re the first line of defense for our clients,” he said. “It’s in areas like this where we prove our value as humans, and it shows why agents will never be replaced by AI.”
