The professional photographs posted on a property tour website last year show Moffy Yu's condo in downtown
Documents provided by Yu show the home was listed for
But Yu, a former international student who now lives in
Instead, she said, it was stolen.
The property was listed by an impersonator who gained access to the vacant home, staged the photo shoot, listed it and sold it, all without her knowledge, she said. In the process, the impersonator appears to have duped the buyer, two sets of property agents, lawyers involved in the sale, a major bank and the
Yu's experience, which she called "bizarre and shocking", is not isolated. It's part of what investigator
King, of
But he said his firm had recently investigated several cases of total title fraud in the
He said the phenomenon involved “a fraudulent impostor” claiming to be the property’s owner, having “manufactured and prepared identification.”
He said total title fraud is “extremely problematic,” because both a true homeowner and an unsuspecting new purchaser are victimized.
“The property sale, although a fraudulent transfer, is all performed in the proper legal processes which adds to the complications as this has to be all undone, which can take considerable time as it all has to go through the various judicial process," King said by email.
On
Yu, 24, only noticed that "something unusual" was going on with her condo, which she bought in 2017 for more than
She asked friends in real estate she knew in
“I was freaking out and I couldn’t believe what was going on here. The whole thing was outrageous, unbelievable, and it took me a while to digest,” said Yu in an interview conducted in Mandarin.
“I felt so helpless, and I still can’t believe this could have happened to me."
Yu, who moved back to
The fraudulent photo tour of Yu's apartment is still online, showing what she called "my beloved property filled with all my memories." She said the furniture was all hers, although she didn't recognize some small items including an orange throw pillow and a potted plant.
The real estate photography firm that posted the tour of Yu's apartment online did not respond to an email.
A woman who answered the intercom for Yu's apartment on Tuesday hung up when a reporter identified themselves and asked about the property's ownership. Yu's name was still listed on the building's intercom.
"Given the priority we place on customer confidentiality, we cannot disclose any further details."
A representative for the real estate brokerage that was listed in documents provided by Yu as representing the fraudulent seller said in Mandarin that the firm was unaware of the case, while a representative of
Yu said the only fortunate part of the experience was that she had purchased land title insurance.
The “smart, long-term solution” was to purchase title insurance, said Hudak.
“On average, it sells for about
Hudak said previous types of fraud would involve suspects acting as buyers to open a bank account and obtain a mortgage under someone else’s name, then make off with the money.
But fraudsters impersonating owners is a new phenomenon, he said.
Most vulnerable are owners who have been absent from their homes for a long period.
"It's important for all the professionals involved, the Realtor, the lawyer, and the banker, to check very closely identity documents,” said Hudak.
The "old-school" way was to get a duplicate title from the land title office. "Having the duplicate title does protect you but keep it in a safe place because, without the duplicate, you can't transfer title," said Ehrlich.
King, the insurance investigator, said impersonators are rarely the only parties involved in title fraud.
“In most instances, the groups behind this are well organized and the people front facing on the fraudulent IDs are not typically the ring leaders who distance themselves from exposure,” said King.
"In most cases, the funds received are either quickly (with in a day or two) moved out of fraudulently obtained bank accounts also in the homeowners' names to cryptocurrency or gold or wired overseas to make recovery efforts almost impossible."
He said the risks had become "more problematic" during the pandemic, "as document signing was done virtually in most instances and the professionals in the process were not meeting with clients directly and physically, with identification verification (instead) being completed virtually."
Yu said she hoped her "traumatic and painful" experience would help raise awareness of the scam. She has been describing her experiences on Chinese social media.
"I thought what happened to me was extremely rare, but a few others sent private messages to me saying they shared the same pain," said Yu. "What I have been through wasn't an isolated case."
— With files from Maan Alhmidi in
This report by The Canadian Press was first published
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
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