Last month brought about the third known property scam in Australia involving owners living abroad. Specifically, the home owners reside in Africa, and parties in Australia have stolen their identity in order to sell the property they own in Australia. Unfortunately, the first two attempts to carry this fraud off were successful. Thankfully, after the observance of the first two, and a stroke of luck on behalf of the real owner, the third was thwarted.
The result of these acts is the imposition of a 100 point identity check prior to the sale of properties (commercial, residential, and industrial) in Perth, Australia. The real estate professionals out there are issuing a warning, if the criminals tried it here, were successful, but have now been uncovered, it is likely that they will attempt the same thing elsewhere. This could mean in other areas of Australia, but could also spread to other countries, or throughout the world.
While such scams are not altogether unheard of, they continue to be perpetrated, and we should all be diligent in the sale of property. While it might seem unbelievable that this could be achieved, it can, and has been. We expect that places with few identity checks will be making changes regarding this, the only question is will they do it before or after such fraud occurs or is attempted.
