Associated Incidents
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s a sophisticated scam you may have never heard of -- using AI technology to try and fraudulently sell property -- but it almost happened recently in Hallandale Beach.
A would-be scammer used a missing woman’s photo to create an AI video image and used it to appear on a Zoom call with a title company.
That AI woman was claiming to be the owner and seller of a vacant property in Hallandale Beach.
The call was set up by Florida Title and Trust to verify “Margaret McCartney” was actually a real person.
“It shocked me to see a video that was clearly not a person,” said Lauren Albrecht, President of Florida Title and Trust.
Albrecht said there were red flags from the start, including tax bills billed to the Bahamas when “McCartney” claimed to be from West Virginia.
“I did suspect fraud,” said Albrecht. “And generally, we ask for a proof of life when we think there is a person impersonating a seller, and generally when we do that, people disappear.”
The scammer used the picture of a 76-year-old woman who went missing from California in May of 2018. Her name is actually Margrit Pritchard.
Right now, the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office is working its own AI real estate fraud case, and fear there will be more.
“It’s just going to get more sophisticated and I wouldn’t be surprised if more people utilize this type of technology to fool many people in our community,” said Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar.
The office has a crimes prevention team made up of 10 people, including police officers. They have already worked 180 fraud cases, making 60 arrests this year.
If it wasn’t for the title company’s vigilance, that potential buyer would have been out a lot of money.
“The buyer would have lost about a $250,000 investment for the construction of the property,” said Albrecht.
For those who live in Broward County, there is a free fraud detection software available to you. For more information, click here.