A Maryland man was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for his role in trying to sell a parcel without the knowledge of the owner.
Duane Dixon Jr. was found guilty last January of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud. Dixon was part of a conspiracy where an individual impersonating a landowner contacted a realtor in Winchester, Virginia, claiming to have authority to sell a parcel in Hampshire County, West Virginia. The imposter successfully listed the property for sale through the realtor.
As part of the fraud scheme, deposit information for a bank account belonging to, and controlled by Dixon, a co-conspirator of the imposter, was emailed to a real estate closing agent. When he was subsequently contacted by an undercover employee of the FBI, Dixon repeatedly lied about his relationship with the sender of the attempted wire transaction and his knowledge regarding the transactions. Dixon’s fraudulent statements were made with the intent to complete the sham transaction.
In addition to his incarceration, Dixon will serve three years of supervised release after his sentence ends.
Good, lock ’em up! It should be at least 2 yrs in jail for this, or more, to deter other would be scammers. This is a growing problem. What is wrong with people, that they can’t use their efforts to earn an honest living?
Sounds like he got oh so close to getting the money. Not only did he get a Realtor to list the property, but the property was sold, and escrow must have closed or they wouldn’t have been wiring the funds. To pull this off the fake seller would have had to get a notary to accept his ID as the seller. If the property were held in a trust he would of had to forge the real sellers signature on the Grant Deed to the satisfaction of the trust. I wonder where he got tripped up? Most likely the property was not in a trust. A sharp title company rep might have noticed that the signatures didn’t match. But, the fake seller could have access to the real sellers signature if the real seller had taken out a loan on the property, since the loan docs are obtainable through a simple preliminary title report. This fraud is a lot easier to pull off then it should be, and the payoff can be huge for the criminal. Who’s left on the hook? The title company would end up having to write the true owner of the property a very large check. That’s why having title insurance is so important.
These fraud schemes are more common than most believe. Realtors catch it before they list the property if they’re doing their job. They fraudsters will have fake drivers license and even fake passports made. Check with your closing attorney before listing property. If you’re in a state that doesn’t use attorneys to close property…..good luck.