Identity frauds and scams are prevalent throughout our community, and the real estate industry is not immune this criminal activity.

There have been recent events where properties were sold without the knowledge or consent of the lawful property owners, with fraudsters contacting real estate agents posing as the real owners. There was a transaction in Canberra where a property was sold through a South African scam. The real owner, who also lived overseas, only found out about it after contacting the managing agent to ask why rent payments on their investment property had stopped. This was all done using a combination of emails and postage and no face to face contact.

Real estate agents must be vigilant in protecting their landlords as the number of property fraud attempts in Australia is growing.

Warning signs to look out for include:

- Recent changes in address and contact details

- Advise that the sale is urgent and documents originate from overseas

- Request for funds to be transferred to a different bank account from the one normally used

- Inconsistencies in information provided by the client.

- Generic, new email addresses such as Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail

- Poor use of language in email communications

- No inspections and no face to face contact

As best practice real estate agents we need to be on the lookout for any warning signs of real estate fraud, and establish that the purported sellers of the property are entitlement to do just that.