A Fund Member contacted The Fund to let us know of a fraud he has experienced. A fraudster purported to be the seller of property in Central Florida and provided the buyer’s agent with identification and seller information that appeared real. They insisted that a particular title company in South Florida with the same name as a real Fund Member, hold the escrow money. Their logo and address were the same as the real Fund Member’s. The phone number turned out to be a Google number that showed the Fund Member’s name on the caller ID. The buyer’s agent became a little suspicious because the people she spoke to at the phone number were not as well-spoken or knowledgeable about real estate as she expected. She looked up the real phone number for the Fund Member, called and spoke to the real attorney, and found that the fraudsters were scamming her buyers, hoping they would send their money to the made-up title company. Her buyers did not send money.
A few hours later, the Fund Member got a call from a different angry real estate agent. She was not happy with something the fake title company had done. The Fund Member had to explain that the title company she was dealing with was a fraud and the real Fund Member had nothing to do with it. He advised her to not send money to them, but if she had already, do what she could to stop the transfer.
Please be alert to this business impersonation scam. For more information on steps you can take to avoid falling victim to fraudsters, visit https://www.thefund.com/information-center/information-security.