Scammers trying to sell Hilton Head, Beaufort Co. properties that aren’t theirs. Here’s how

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Hilton Head Island Realtor Mark Devers received a call from someone “old and sick.”

“They said, ‘I’m having some financial difficulty. I would like to sell (a lot) as soon as possible,’” Devers said. “It’s not unusual to want to do a quick close before the end of the year.”

That call was the start of an attempt by scammers to sell land on Hilton Head Island that wasn’t theirs. Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors CEO Jean Beck said she receives about three calls a week from Realtors in Beaufort County reporting such a scam.

Ultimately, scammers are trying to get money transferred to them from a fraudulent sale of land they don’t own, but know details about through public property records, according to Beck.

“They could be jumping from Realtor to Realtor so it could be one person is the scammer, but hitting upon three-plus Realtors in a short period of time,” she said.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office received four reports of real estate scams since October 2022, including properties on Daufuskie Island and Fripp Island, said spokeswoman Maj. Angela Viens. She said the number of scams could be higher if they aren’t reported or if they fall under the buyer’s local jurisdiction, which isn’t always Beaufort County.

At the beginning of January, the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation sent out a letter warning real estate agents and property owners of the scam.

“They’re (trying to sell) land because that way they don’t have the issue of the buyer showing up to see it,” real estate attorney Cathy Olivetti said.

Devers said he spoke with the fake seller about seven times on the phone, though the scammer tried to communicate primarily through email, which he said was “a little bit of a red flag.”

When asked, the scammer had correct information on when the lot was purchased and wanted to sell the lot quickly at a low price, according to Devers.

“I think one of the theories behind it is real estate was moving so quickly over the last few years through COVID that scammers saw an opportunity to come in and move something quickly,” Beck said.

Devers said the scammers knew historical information about the community and when he walked the “football field and a half” parcel of land it matched their description.

When Devers listed the property, he received multiple offers, but the scammers wanted to go with a lower offer that would close in a week, versus a higher offer that would close in three weeks, which was suspicious to Devers.

He discovered the scam once the deal went under contract.

“When I gave the contract to the attorney. I gave him a background of the situation. Especially because it was a quick close and I told him, ‘There’s something that’s not right about what’s going on with this,’” he said. “There’s just something that just feels wrong.”

Where the forms were notarized didn’t match the address of the seller, and the scammers were slow to provide photo ID, which matched the owner’s name, but the photos “looked strange,” according to Devers.

“That was really the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Devers said. “That sparked us to do some research online and then I found the actual seller after searching for a while. I called him up and it turns out that he was under contract in a private sale.”

The private sale was between $200,000 and $400,000, according to Devers, and the scammers wanted to sell the property at 15% less.

A separate type of scam

Olivetti, the real estate attorney, said there’s another type of scam that occurs during actual legitimate property purchases. During this scam, fraudsters intercept emails, pose as the law firm handling the purchase and request the buyer wire money to a scam account instead of the real account.

“We had a lady that purchased a house online and wired money, because I guess maybe the Realtor’s email had been hacked, and she wired $260,500 to the wrong person,” Viens said, speaking about a recent incident. “I don’t know that she was able to recover her money.”

Olivetti said for this reason all of her law firm’s email communications say they’ll never change their wire transfer instructions once they’re sent.

What happens if you’ve been scammed?

In Devers’ case, the scam was caught before it went through. However, if the scammers aren’t caught the buyer bears the brunt of the consequences, according to Olivetti.

“If the buyer had title insurance, title insurance company would probably step in and help put things back together,” she said. “There would have to be a lawsuit to undo everything. The problem at that point is the money is stolen.”

For the actual owner of the property, the fake purchase creates a “cloud” on the deed, which needs to be fixed before the land can be properly sold, according to Olivetti.

“The seller didn’t really own what they conveyed, so the deed is kind of worthless,” she said. “It becomes whats called a ‘cloud’ on the title, which needs to be fixed.”

Viens encourages those who believe they’ve been scammed to contact local authority.

“If the person who falls victim doesn’t reside in Beaufort County and say they live in New York and are buying a property on Hilton Head it may not fall under our jurisdiction,” she said. “It may fall under the jurisdiction of where they reside, depending on the circumstance.”

Scam prevention

There are tips for property owners, buyers, sellers and real estate agents to avoid this scam.

“(We hope) the opportunity for those scammers is going to be lessened and lessened and lessened because people will be more and more knowledgeable and a little more thoughtful into their their purchasing,” Beck said.

Beck recommends property owners create a Google Alert with their property address so they’re alerted if their property is listed by someone else. She also recommends owners monitor real estate and sale by owner websites for their properties.

Through Beaufort County, property owners can register their address through the property alert service, which alerts owners of potential fraudulent activity.

The South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation sent out warning letter detailing more red flags.