It is not new when we come across news published telling how someone used the property or name of person or a company to sell real estate projects to more than one buyers and running away with the money. Well, this is one of the most expensive forms of identity thefts; at least, this is what we can say! Identity theft, in anyways, is quite harmful and takes away the victim in heavy losses.
While when it comes to small identity thefts like taking away medical details, customer numbers, loans or unwanted or unrecognized loan requests, etc. you can always seek help from identity theft protection alerts and services. Lifelock, a leading identity theft assistance service, confirms that it is literally impossible to safeguard yourself from such frauds at a rate of 100%. But a little attention to the fine lines and awareness from the user side can create a big difference and save you from wasting your life and years. While some users are hesitant to use such services because of unnecessary expenses, such companies are coming forward to help by offering lifelock code and coupons to aid the process.
Prepaid Fraud with Identity Theft
More recently, another variant of the pre-deposit fraud scheme has been dubbed. The knitting pattern remains the same, but the deceivers make use of an intermediate step, which is to create trust or at least to distract the attempt at fraud.
In the case of pre-payment fraud with identity theft, the fraudster advertises an unusually cheap apartment (which actually does not exist or is not available) in a good location. If an interested party logs in to the supposed offer, the fraudster explains that he is currently abroad and that he is currently not able to visit him.
From now on, the approach changes in comparison to the known fraud scheme where an inspection is required for an inspection: In the case of the classical precautionary fraud, the fraudster would now propose to send the key of the apartment for the purpose of inspecting an advance payment. Instead, the fraudster now asserts that he is cooperating with a large and well-known brokerage firm, which actually exists, and informs the prospective buyer of the alleged e-mail contact to a supposed employee of this broker’s house. The contact person is, of course, not an agent of the broker but of the deceiver.
From this point the loop runs as usual: key against pre-deposit – which the prospective buyer pays to the supposed broker. If the prospective buyer is able to do this and sends the required money via a money transfer service, he never again hears something of the fraudsters.
In this way, prospective buyers can protect themselves against a preliminary fraud with identity theft:
No provider offers high-quality apartments at a price that is almost absurdly lower than usual.
A landlord who advertises his own property usually does not work with a broker. Conversely, the broker and not the landlord is the one who switches the advertisement when the broker has been commissioned.
Personal contacts and visits are always possible with reputable sellers.
Serious providers generally do not require payment in advance.
