Criminals Steal House Thanks To Hacked Email 227
mask.of.sanity writes with this quote from ZDNet:
"An international cybercrime investigation is underway into a sophisticated scam network that used email and fax to sell an Australian man's AU$500,000 property without his knowledge. The man was overseas when the Nigerian-based scammers stole his credentials and amazingly sold two houses through his real estate agent. He rushed home and prevented the sale of his second home from being finalized. Australian Federal Police and overseas law enforcement agencies will investigate the complex scam, which is considered the first of its kind in Australia. It is alleged scammers had stolen the man's email account and personal property documents to sell the houses and funnel cash into Chinese bank accounts. Investigating agencies admit the scammers hoodwinked both the selling agents and the government, and said they had enough information to satisfy regulatory requirements. The police did not rule out if the scammers had links to the man."
So what's the deal here. (Score:4, Interesting)
Does the man lose his home? He never sold the property and I don't see why he should be giving it up.
These kind of articles never include a followup on what hapenned.
Re:this is ridiculous (Score:5, Interesting)
There is far more to it than email, "It is alleged scammers had stolen Mildenhall's email account and personal and property documents". There had to direct proximate contact, they obtained personal and property documents. The email angle seems to be more of a beat up by ZDnet rather than being of any real significance.
Investor generally keep property titles in a private safe or a bank safety deposit box but, he didn't notice them gone.
Hmm, strange had investments house and his agent was not renting them and the owner didn't notice the missing rent income if the agent was renting them. The whole thing stinks, from the owner, to the agent and beyond. It will be interesting to see how the case pans out over the next few months.
Re:So what's the deal here. (Score:1, Interesting)
So you can buy stolen property in Australia, and its then legally yours? Awesome!
Re:So what's the deal here. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:this is ridiculous (Score:5, Interesting)
...and they go back to e-mail after all that (Score:2, Interesting)
and have issued email warnings to all licensees in the state...
Didn't they learn anything? So they still fell back to e-mail as the official line of communication? With people like that running regulatory agencies, it's no wonder our world is so screwed up.
Re:This is a non-story. (Score:4, Interesting)
According to the wikipedia article fraud nullifies that at least in the state of Victoria. They used a forged title dead (abait unknowinglly though it matters not) to get the transfer registered. Hence they fraudulantly transfered the title, and in Victoria it would be null and void. I am going to assume that it is similar in Western Austriala, but I have not evidence that it is.
Who showed up at closing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Scares the hell out of me (Score:3, Interesting)
When my parents paid off thier mortgage, they never actually closed the mortgage.
The banks still had the title deed. The bank had to keep that document safe (part of the contact). And they deferred the Stamp Duty. When they eventually sold up and moved (Vic to NSW), THEN they retreived the title from the bank. No title deed, no actual sale.
When (if) I buy property back in Oz, I'll have a Conveyancing Lawyer checking the title. They also check liens and (AFAIR) planning issues that might sneek up on you.
Some insight into conveyancing: (Score:4, Interesting)
Some insight from a UK perspective anyway. I work for a fairly large firm of solicitors in the UK who specialize in property/real estate. Here's a few worrying bits of information:
We are required to have ID on the file by law, we are not required to check it in any way whatsoever.
If the vendor/purchaser is long distance from our offices we will accept emailed/faxed copies of all paperwork (INCLUDING ID) within certain easily restrictions such as certified copies, see next point.
We will create a certified copy of ID from anyone that walks in from the street which is basically a legal way of saying we've had sight of the original. If someone was worried about sending their passport to us by post they could get a copy and take it to a local firm of solicitors/lawyers/attorneys and have them stamp it, we would then accept that by fax or email as if it were the original document. This process is usually done by whoever the office assistant/intern happens to be and they will certainly not know how to check the document to make sure it is an original. In my experience they tend to be more worried about whether or not they will be able to make the photocopier work.
We are never required to speak to our client by phone or in person, some simply prefer to do business by email for whatever reason. (sometimes language/accent barriers - communicating via google translate is an experience for sure)
We are not required to check signatures beyond a casual glance to make sure they look similar to the one shown on the ID and this is usually not done. If the document is signed that's good enough for most of the solicitors I've worked for.
Posting ac for obvious reasons.
Re:This is a non-story. (Score:3, Interesting)
In theory a bank at both ends should have seen something???
Re:this is ridiculous (Score:2, Interesting)
Not the first time to happen in Australia (Score:3, Interesting)
Real estate agents in Australia are a cowboys compared to the agents I dealt with in the US and yes, I have experience with both.
Re:Some insight into conveyancing: (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm British but not a lawyer. However, my understanding is that if you acted for me in the purchase of a house and the sale was fraudulent then:
Indeed, slapdash conveyancing has massively increased insurance costs for all solicitors in the UK over the last few years. I hope you're proud of your work.
Re:this is ridiculous (Score:3, Interesting)
I suspect different states have different laws. I sold a house in Tennessee after I had relocated to California. I never saw the buyer and certainly didn't attend the closing. I think I might have assigned a power of attorney over to the real estate agent, but it was long ago so I don't really remember whether I did or not.
I seem to remember a scam in Canada regarding selling real estate that sounded the same as this Australian deal. Apparently legal structures are different, and with different outcomes; I believe that in the US a fraudulent property sale conducted without the knowledge of the real owner would result in the buyer having lost their money, not the real owner losing the property. That *seems* the more correct way to go, as the real owner wouldn't even know anything was happening, whereas the buyer would be engaged in a transaction for which they should get surety of the seller's ownership before forking over the money. At a minimum, its a good reason to make sure that the title insurance on the deal covers you the buyer in addition to the bank for the mortgage. I have always spent the extra $$ to make sure that the title insurance covered me as well as the bank.
Re:this is ridiculous (Score:5, Interesting)
A government without the ability to levy taxes and the power to force the sale of property to recover those taxes would be entirely inneffectual.
I suppose what I'm complaining about is the way such sales are handled, at least in my experience.
It almost happened to my father. He owned his home: paid off his thirty year mortgage on time and in full. But he became ill one year, and racked up some substantial medical bills, and couldn't pay all of his property tax. He was so sick at the time that he didn't even know that. Fortunately, I had financial power-of-attorney and was going through his records, and discovered (only a couple of days in advance) that his house was scheduled to be sold (the county provided no notice, naturally, I was just lucky enough to figure it out on my own.)
So on the morning of the yearly tax sale, I went to the county seat and attempted to speak with one of the city attorneys about the matter. She was about the coldest human being I've ever encountered, and told me literally, "pay up or lose the house, and don't bother me again." "Civil servant" my ass, and all I wanted was a week 'til some receivables came in. I had brought letters from his physicians documenting his medical condition, but this woman wouldn't even look at them, eventually ordered me out of her office because she had "more important matters to attend to."
So, I went downstairs to the cashier, and found a line of people that stretched down the hall, most of whom were in line to buy my father's house for the price of six month's property taxes. I elbowed my way to the head of the line and handed the cashier a certified check for the remaining balance (flattening my checking account in the process.) I heard a collective groan behind me, as a couple dozen vultures turned around and left because I'd beaten them to it.
A few years before that, he'd had that audacity to ask the county to reappraise his home because he felt they'd valued it too high (and, of course, his taxes were based upon that valuation.) The assessor came out and assessed it about $20,000 higher and told him, "that'll teach you."
Frankly, I'd much rather deal with the Internal Revenue Service than any lower-level taxing body. Yes, the IRS takes a lot of deserved heat, but they do have rules and they follow them, and they'd rather get the cash, even if they don't get it right away. Matter of fact, Dad ended up owing them some money as well, but when I sent them medical documentation and explained the situation, they were willing to write it all off.
When it comes to real estate taxes, don't get behind because you'll likely lose a whole lot more. The problem is likely to get worse, as our local governments start to have more and more financial problems, and start squeezing people even more than they already do.