Scammers target rural Georgia county with property fraud

BARNESVILLE, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A rural county in Georgia has become a target for scammers trying to make tens of thousands of dollars off people’s vacant property through local real estate agents.

Atlanta News First Investigates discovered a growing issue of sham sellers near Barnesville, where a significant amount of growth is taking place. Real estate agents say the scammers are all impersonating property owners who live out of state.

This type of fraud is also easier than the average real estate scam because there’s no home on the land where someone lives or requires a key to show potential buyers.

The Lamar County Sheriff’s Office confirms this is a new scheme they are seeing and currently, have seven similar cases under investigation.

Voicemail worth $100K

The week of Veterans Day, Tracy Quintella Brown drove from Virginia to Barnesville to check on the 20 acres of land she bought when she was stationed at the former U.S. Army Base Fort Gillum in 1996.

“My plan was at some point, once I retired from the military... that I would build my retirement home on this land,” Brown explained.

Now working in cyber security for the U.S. government, she’s about a year away from retirement.

But while browsing Barnesville online in September, she stumbled across her land listed for sale on Zillow.

“The odd thing about reaching out to the realtors and the brokers, they didn’t provide any information on who they were in with as far as selling the lot,” Brown said.

Around the same time, Brown had a missed voicemail from a man asking about her land.

“I called him back and he said something like, ‘Oh, we got a contract on your lot,’” Brown recalled.

He sent her a copy of the contract written up by Coldwell Banker Bullard Realty’s office out of Jackson.

Brown said someone signed her name through DocuSign online, but the phone number wasn’t hers and there was a typo in her name which was used as the email address.

Brown reached out to Atlanta News First Investigates for help and we found her future next-door neighbor nearly lost $100,000.

“I’m tickled pink that you got the message we’d left and called me that morning,” Edward Turner told the real Tracy Brown.

Turner said he’d written the seller a letter explaining that he wanted the land to build a pond for his son, and he thought the letter was what prompted “her” to accept an offer $75,000 under the asking price.

The night before Brown called, they signed the contract, and he was just hours away from wire transferring the money when Brown called.

“Had I not received that call, no one would have been the wiser,” Brown said. “We wouldn’t have known that it was fraud until possibly weeks later, when all the transactions were done.”

Real estate agents targeted

It wasn’t just Brown’s property. Atlanta News First Investigates found several real estate agents in Lamar County that say from August to October, they started to see red flags with properties they were listing for sale.

Danny Turner owns Team One Real Estate and said another realtor told him about a fake out-of-state driver’s license they got from a seller, which prompted him to triple-check his listings.

One of the sellers was his friend’s uncle in Florida, selling his land for $60,000. The seller said he was selling because he didn’t get along with his dad who owned a house on the adjacent property.

“I called my friend and he said, ‘Yeah, Uncle Gary, he’s not selling his land,” Danny Turner said.

Down the street from him, realtor Joseph Sims said he caught the same sham with one of his sellers.

Showing Atlanta News First Investigates a printout of the Florida driver’s license, he explained, “Your license number starts with your last initial of your last name in Florida, his started with ‘O.’”

But the last name started with an ‘M,’ so Sim said he checked an online database called Forewarn to the seller’s information. He found a different number listed and when he called it, the person said the license was their expired ID from four years prior with a different photo.

Fraud investigations

The Lamar County Sheriff’s Office confirmed they are investigating at least seven fraudulent property listings from August through October, including a report from the county tax accessor’s office stating someone filed fraudulent deeds on four vacant properties attempting to sell them.

One of the reports was from the county tax accessor’s office stating someone filed fraudulent deeds on four vacant properties attempting to sell them.

“Prior to September, we haven’t had any real estate fraud cases come across in Lamar County, ever. This is the first time,” Investigator Sgt. Jeremy Haire said.

After several sting operations to get the sellers to show up in-person, investigators believe they may not even live in the United States.

“A lot of the phone numbers don’t originate from the United States, or they are prepaid numbers,” Haire said.

Both Edward Turner and Danny Turner told Atlanta News First Investigates that their seller claimed they could not sign in-person because they were traveling to London for family events.

The sheriff’s office advises realtors to check a seller’s information with the tax assessor’s office before listing and g contracts in-person or with a third-party attorney present.

“It’s scary,” Brown exclaimed. “Now, I find myself constantly checking me constantly. Because for as long as I’ve had this property, I’ve never had anything like this happen.”

Atlanta News First Investigates tried to the real estate agent who listed Brown’s property and wrote the contract, but we have not heard back.

Report it

According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 231 victims reported real estate crimes in Georgia in 2023. The FBI’s Atlanta office said they are aware of vacant land allegations and ask victims to report it to them or local law enforcement.

You can report it to 1-800-CALL-FBI, or online at tips.fbi.gov. You can also report it to www.ic3.gov, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Atlanta News First Investigates asked the Georgia Attorney General’s Office for any reports they’ve had regarding vacant land fraud throughout the state. A spokesperson said they did not find any in their records. However, they do recommend victims report these cases to their consumer protection division.

You can also file a report with the FTC online or by calling the FTC’s Consumer Response Center at (877) 382-4357.

Georgia offers a property fraud registry where you can your address to be notified any time paperwork is filed on your property.

To read more about Atlanta News First Investigates specific reporting on deed theft and a new identification law, click here.

Tips to protect your property

Landowners

• Set up title alerts with the state or county clerk’s office, they will email if something comes up. (Not all counties offer this service.)
• Set up online search alerts for your property.
• Drive by the property or have a management company spot-check it.
• Befriend the of the community or neighbors to warn you if they see anything suspicious.
• Pay taxes through escrow.
• Ask the local police department if they offer checks, alerts, etc. police department if they offer checks, alerts, etc.

Real estate industry

• Avoid remote closings, if at all possible.
• Ask for in-person identity checks. If this is not possible, ask for other video proof of life.
• Ask for a copy of the most recent tax bill or other piece of mail, in addition to an ID.
• Look up the phone number by reverse search or through the phone carrier. Watch for international VOIP.
• Check the email addresses and names. Fraudsters have been known to recycle them.
• Pay attention to the age of the seller, accents, and excuses.
• Send a certified letter to the address of record on the tax bill.
• Call ing public notary to confirm they attested to the documents.
• Spread the word in your professional network to help your colleagues avoid falling for the same scam.

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