Scammers ‘selling' homes that aren't even for sale

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Action 9 uncovered a new twist on a real estate scam.

Last year, Action 9 warned you about scammers offering to sell homes they don’t own. They take real ads, change the contact information and trick people out of their money.

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Now, scammers are picking homes that aren’t even for sale, creating ads behind the real owners' backs and trying to get home buyers to send them money.

Real estate agent Briley Burris had a client looking to buy a home for less than $150,000. Her client found one on Zillow. It was in north Charlotte for just $35,000.

Burris suspected it was a scam, and she was right. The house exists (Jason Stoogenke went there), but it wasn't even for sale. Plus, it looked like people were living there.  So Stoogenke left a note, warning them.

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"It's a dream for many people to be a homeowner, and it's sad and it's that someone can take something like that from someone with no, no regrets. I don't understand that mindset," Burris said.

Burris gave the scammer a piece of her mind. "I texted her and said, 'I really can't believe you're doing this, and I'm surprised you can sleep at night.'  and she said, 'Too late!'"

Burris has no idea who the scammer is, but reported the con to Zillow, which took down the ad a few days later.

"Zillow goes to great lengths to police activity and fully inform our users of the existence of scams and how to protect themselves. Our customer support team monitors activity on the site in a number of different ways and if a listing is found to be fraudulent, it is removed from Zillow. Zillow has a 'beware of scams and other internet fraud' page on the site, telling users to look out for red flags like requests for wire transfers and long-distance inquiries, and directing them to our fraud and scams page, which provides valuable information about how to avoid fraudulent listings," a Zillow spokesperson told Action 9.

It's such hot housing market, scammers hope you'll risk a few thousand dollars to lock in a house sight unseen. Never send money without seeing home first and always make sure you know who the real owner is.

Cox Media Group