the FBI is warning of the new scam on the rise fraudsters who are selling vacant property out from under the owners in some cases victims only discover their land has been taken after seeing heavy equipment show up to start construction experts say the covid-19 pandemic made this kind of fraud possible with more transactions taking place entirely online businesses and Realtors got good at it and so did criminals but how are they pulling it off special agent Joseph Cardosi with the FBI nework division is here to explain special agent good to see you thanks for coming in so how are they carrying out these schemes because uh don't you need to have a deed a title some form of ID even if you're closing remotely yeah so so first thanks for having me on Brian this a great opportunity to talk about this issue it's a really fascinating scheme and like you said one that's really ramped up uh post pandemic era and um how it takes place is someone just reaches out cold calls or cold even text message now everyone's a little too um informal these days they take uh solicitations over text message or email and that starts the conversation someone just says they are uh they're the owner of the land and they reach out and say Hey I want to sell this land I want to Quick close um they'll have a fake ID ready they they can find sort of Open Source uh information that matches the owner of record and they create fake IDs sometimes they create fake Deeds uh fake not notary stamps everything it fools everyone up and down the chain they go the extra mile so they shop around to find a realtor even if they find one uh and then how does it eventually get discovered or does it yeah so thankfully through our Outreach efforts we're we're you know we've got a bit of a road show we're going around and talking to a lot of Realtors lot of title companies even attorneys who are involved in these transactions just to make them aware and we're hoping folks that are watching this can you know think twice about either land that they own or if they're in the real estate profession um certain steps they can take to to think twice about vacant lot sales and you know sometimes it's unfortunately not discovered until after the transaction closes and it's either you know they they drop into their vacant lot of land and they see you know equipment developing the property uh had one owner you know notice a construction crew come up to their adjacent lot and she went up to approach them and and said oh yeah we work for the buyer of this property and the victim said no I'm I'm the owner of the property I never sold this property sure so okay if it is discovered uh and eventually it lands in the right hands is there any recourse and how are you advising Realtors and land owners to be on the lookout for this because I don't have to tell you the level of sophistication that we're seeing with um stolen identities and and fraud is is just the caliber is amazing yeah yeah our best advice to the community if for the profession you know try to avoid remote closings if possible these the frosters rely on remote closings where they don't have to show their face all they do is send a copy of their ID you know ask for additional information get a piece of mail they probably not going to have a piece of mail in in the that true owner's name um for the land owners themselves just keep an eye on your property yeah you know if you're not if you're not around I understand a lot of people own properties out of state or they are out of state um talk to your neighbors you know be a part of the community have someone drop in check on your property make sure there's not a for sale sign or just something as simple as putting your address in a a Google search making sure it's not listed for sale just keep tabs on your it sounds like just a bizarre form of fraud but how commonplace is it how rampant is it in New Jersey so this this came to the attention of our Squad uh here in New York last summer and since we started scratching the surface it was just it was it's a new variant of fraud that that we had heard about and the more and more we talk to folks uh the more we're we're coming across so we're we're up to north of a hundred incidents just discovered within the past year here most of them are here in northern New Jersey uh and the more we talk to folks in other parts of the country it's happening everywhere special agent Joseph Cardosi Joseph Cardosi,thanks so much for sharing this information thanks for your time appreciate it