Watch for real estate frauds involving private mortgages
In a hot real estate market fraudsters are even more motivated than usual – there is a lot of money to be had and lawyers are common targets. LAWPRO is seeing a significant increase in the number of real estate frauds involving private mortgages.
The frauds we are seeing are incredibly sophisticated. In some cases, multiple fraudsters are in cahoots with each other participating as different parties to a transaction – i.e., the vendor, the buyer, the mortgage broker and/or the lender could be in on the fraud. Regardless of their role, the fraudsters will have very convincing fake versions of all the usual documentation that someone in their role would typically have.
On real estate deals involving private lenders, our experience is that the following circumstances should be considered red flags indicating a possible fraud. While every real estate deal is unique and may have unusual aspects to it, proceed with caution if you see transactions involving one or more of these red flags:
1. Large numbers of referrals from a new source: After having someone approach you saying they were referred by a friend, that person then sends you a lot of business right away. Keep in mind, fraudsters will frequently take steps to make it appear they are coming from a trusted referral source, and they may also be familiar to you as they were a party in another transaction you were involved in.
2. Many similar transactions over a short timeframe: Within a few weeks you are asked by the new referral source to do the same type of transaction repeatedly, after never having seen these types of transactions before. If anything, the value of the mortgages seem to grow with each transaction you work on.
3. “Rush” transactions: A strong push to close from your client, and in particular the referral source, is a red flag that should not be ignored.
4. No funds go through a law firm trust account: The parties insist on transferring the funds between themselves.
5. All of the funds are transferred outside of Canada.
6. It appears that the homeowner didn’t actually receive funds or that no funds were advanced at all.
7. The lender doesn’t require post-dated cheques or pre-authorized payments or you have the sense that there is some informality to the deals, perhaps because the borrowers and lenders know each other.
8. The mortgage agent or broker isn’t licensed with FSRA: A licensing search can be done here.
9. The client does not want title insurance, despite the size of the loan: This is a strong indication of a fraud because fraudsters are trying to avoid the scrutiny that a title insurer will raise.
10. You receive or are instructed to write a “direction re funds” that has names you’ve never seen before with no apparent connection to the transaction or the property: If this happens shortly before closing it is almost certainly a fraud.
11. The current mortgage is being used to pay off one or more private mortgages that were recently registered, often for large amounts: If a borrower goes to another lawyer to act on a new mortgage and a new lender is involved, this has all the earmarks of being a “fake mortgage” fraud where the first mortgage is a fiction designed to induce the next lender to advance real funds.
12. ID and documents that don’t look quite right: With the pandemic it’s more likely that you will meet clients virtually and sign documents remotely. As noted above, fraudster clients will have government ID, property tax statements, corporate documents and everything else you would normally expect them to have. However, as these documents are fakes there may be something that doesn’t look quite right with them. Perhaps the signature line isn’t exactly where it would normally be. Perhaps the signature on the ID looks fine, but you notice that it isn’t exactly the same as the signature on the documents you’ve asked the client to sign. Consider doing a driver’s license check with the Ministry of Transportation.
Please share this information with your clerks as they are involved in parts of transactions you may not see and are ideally situated to identify red flags of potential fraud.
If you are an Ontario lawyer acting on a matter that you suspect might be a fraud, call LAWPRO at 1-800-410-1013 or 416-598-5899 or email [email protected]. One of our Fraud Team members will talk you through the common fraud scenarios we are seeing and help you spot red flags that may indicate you are being duped. This will help you ask appropriate questions of your client to determine if the matter is legitimate or not. If the matter you are acting on turns out to be a fraud, we will work with you to prevent the fraud and minimize potential losses and claims costs.