By Stephen Smoot
“They are definitely targeting vacant property on what’s listed on the tax map as a whole,” shared J. T. Miller, Hardy County Chief Deputy.
Deputy Miller refers to a growing scam hitting lands with fast-rising values in the Potomac Highlands counties, but likely serves as a threat in some fashion across the state.
Possibly using public records or apps built to identify property lines and owner information, confidence men, often based in foreign countries, craft fake official identification from the owner’s correct name and birthdate. Deputy Miller explains that such identifications have that information right, but offer no profile photograph and “the numbers are wrong. The descriptors are wrong.”
“They look like legitimate IDs, but they are not.”
He put the blame on COVID era loosening of regulations that make fully online transactions with no face-to-face contact required, explaining that makes such scams and others much easier to run.
And Hardy County is not alone in seeing these problems. Deputy Miller stated that “the West Virginia State Police called me on a Pendleton County property. They got it stopped on the day of closing.” A Franklin-based attorney confirmed that such scams had been attempted in Pendleton County.
One should not assume that the problem’s potential is confined to the Washington DC area adjacent counties in Eastern West Virginia or similarly growing counties near Mountain State urban areas. Such scams can just as easily target rich timberlands and areas where mineral rights help to steer wealth from coal or natural gas producing areas to those holding the rights.
The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department has not seen these problems yet, but the subtlety of the scam renders landowners and rights holders vulnerable anywhere.
Deputy Miller shared that his awareness of the issue came during his own search on area properties for sale. He saw a property listed whose owner he knew. Once he confirmed that the owner had not intention of selling the land, the sale was stopped. “I just saw what was for sale,” he shared, and then called the real estate agent to say it “looked fishy.”
Out-of-state landowners of property in West Virginia are even more vulnerable, in part because of the lack of community familiarity with them.
Deputy Miller advised that owners of vacant property sign up with their county clerk’s office to receive immediate notice “if paperwork with their name comes across their desk.” One cannot in most states, however, amend a deed to require a face-to-face, or at least a visually confirming process of the seller’s identity. Then again, the scam is still novel, so the law has not caught up with the times here yet.
Real estate agents, owners deprived of their land, and also those buying the property in good faith are all victims of the scam. Once completed, the scam is legally difficult to unravel, especially if the money is wired abroad.
Landowners with vacant property, he stated, should check with the typical real estate online listings to make sure their property is not up for sale. Mineral rights, however, are not as easy to check up on.
He also advised that real estate agents can add to their due diligence, especially if the proposed seller and transaction appears illegitimate. “I can run an ID for them,” Deputy Miller stated, “but I can only tell you if it is fake or not.” He also advised that real estate agents “do a good background check.”
Deputy Miller shared that he wanted to emphasize that monitoring real estate listings and working to head off these scams “is a team effort,” praising the entire department for realizing the threat and working to protect area landowners.