Wellesley property owner narrowly avoids real estate scam

If you want to sell a buildable lot in Wellesley, there are two ways to go about it—the legal way and the scammers’ way.

For the sake of argument, let’s say you want to keep things on the up-and-up. Just go ahead and list one (or more) of your vast holdings in town, find a buyer, come to an agreement, and close. One of your half-acre plots should fetch $2mil+. Well done.

But what if you really, really want to sell a parcel in Wellesley but, gosh darn it, you simply don’t own one. You’re not going to let a little thing like that get in your way, are you? Time to do things the scammers’ way. Don’t scoff, just such a sale went through in Concord, Mass., and a scammer tried to make the same thing happen here in Wellesley.

As requested by the family involved, we’re keeping the details vague. After barely escaping the financial and legal nightmare of nearly having their Wellesley property sold out from under them, they’re not eager to have the address published. Hint: it’s not one of the the two lots currently for sale in Wellesley, complete with MLS numbers, and listed by reputable local brokerages.

According to Wellesley attorney David Himmelberger, who represents the affected family, they were targeted with a false listing swindle. That’s when someone lists a property they don’t own, using fake documentation and claiming to be the owner. “What these folks running a scam are looking for is vacant parcels owned by out-of-state owners,” he says. “Finding such a property can be as simple as searching GIS records in towns for vacant land.”

The Town of Wellesley’s Geographic Information System is typical of those used by municipalities all over the country. Its computer system creates, manages, and analyzes geographic data, and that information can be used to answer questions or solve problems by being displayed on maps or in applications.

We took a spin through Wellesley’s GIS property viewer, and found it quite the intriguing rabbit hole. With just a few clicks, one can find the mapped locations of just about anything in town—aerial views, easements, flood elevation levels, public lands, open space, and more. The more time spent drilling down, the more detailed the information becomes. Someone with a little time, know-how, and determination can find out a lot about a town.

In the Concord case, The Concord Bridge reported that the rightful owners, who lived out-of-state, and had owned the 1.84 acre lot since 1991, got a surprise certified letter in 2024. The letter, related to building permits for the 1.84-acre property, came as a shock to the owners, who had not pulled any permits. According the story, the owner called the town to have everything shut down, but that didn’t happen. There is now a partially completed 5-bedroom home at 211 Mattison Dr., built by developers who purchased the lot from the scammers. The town is facing a lawsuit from the owners, who claim that Concord’s inaction aided the title theft. It’s a mess.

Real estate agents to the rescue

In the Wellesley case, Sudbury-based Berkshire Hathaway real estate agent Janice MacDonald had received a phone call from a man saying he wanted to sell his Wellesley property. The agent was game, but as she asked for basic details from the potential client, something seemed off. The longer they spoke, the more she knew that some research was in order. She tracked down the out-of-state owners, who assured her they were not trying to sell their property.

The owners promptly engaged Himmelberger, a long-time family friend, asking “Are we being scammed?”

Yup. You sure are.

Meanwhile, back in Wellesley, real estate agent and Wellesley resident Bobby Morganstern of Advisors Living says she was contacted by the same scammer. She was well aware of the Concord flim-flam, and so wasn’t a good mark. “At first I wasn’t thinking ‘scam’ when he contacted me,” she said. “They usually choose an out-of-town agent, and I’m local.”

But something just felt wrong to her. Although the person asked most of the right questions, he wouldn’t meet with her via Zoom. OK, not a deal breaker. They were looking for a quick close, within 30 days, and top dollar not necessary. Hmmm. Well, developers request quick closings all the time. So fine. Probably. But who doesn’t want top dollar?

You don’t work in the real estate business for almost 30 years without developing some spidey sense. And Morganstern’s was tingling. Internet research took her down a slightly convoluted path. But, like the other agent, she found the contact information she needed, and dashed off a missive. “Within five minutes, their attorney [Himmelberger] called me.”

Soon, Himmelberger was sending out a warning email to local realtors, outlining the situation. He also notified the Registry of Deeds, and filed an affidavit. “If someone tries to sell it, the buyer will look at the Registry and see that it’s not for sale.”

License and registration, please

Bill O’Donnell, Register of Deeds for Norfolk County, says the Registry is well aware of the real estate scams out there. The good news: in 2015, the Registry started a free Consumer Notification Service, the purpose of which is to alert Norfolk County residents to potential property fraud. If there is any future land recording activity against your name, those who have signed up for the service will be alerted via email.

We signed up last year and receive occasional emails that so far (thankfully) have turned out to be nothing of concern. So if there are no worries, then what’s with the emails? Because we have a common surname, and the Consumer Notification Service is necessarily name and not address driven, we sometimes receive alerts for other Browns. Under the “better safe than sorry” premise, we don’t mind a couple extra inbox items.

The bad news: the Notification Service can’t prevent fraud. O’Donnell says, “You may do everything you can to protect yourself, and you still can’t avoid a bad actor taking a shot at your property. Someone may still try to defraud you. But you can be ready. You can be vigilant.”

Sign up for alerts here. Or call the Customer Service Center at 781-461-6101, and they’ll walk you through the sign-up process. Or stop by the Norfolk Registry of Deeds, located at 649 High Street in Dedham, and they’ll help you.

If you believe a fraudulent land record has been recorded against your property, immediately contact the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds Customer Service Center at 781-461-6101. After speaking with a Registry employee, if you believe in fact a document has been recorded fraudulently against your property, contact the Wellesley police at 781-235-1212.

Wellesley real estate broker Elaine Bannigan of Douglas Elliman had additional cautions. “Real estate agents are targeted by people pretending to be buyers who need to buy an expensive home fast,” she says. “These are usually overseas scammers who are on a mission to gain access to financial information. The tip-off for agents is when these scammers say they can only communicate via ‘WhatsApp’—which leaves them virtually untraceable.”

Other signs Bannigan warns her agents to beware of include a “seller” request to unload a vacant property for less than its fair market value; refusing all requests for an in-person meeting; insistence on a remote closing using a remote notary, whom they want to arrange on their own—the scammer may even impersonate the notary and provide fraudulent documents at closing.

Bannigan recommends watching a video from the National Association of Realtors for an eye-opening educational experience.

Break off the engagement

Himmelberger says once a scam attempt is uncovered, police generally advise those affected to cease engaging. Unfortunately, catching these poseurs is nearly impossible. They’re too savvy to show up for a sting operation, and they’ve covered their online tracks since first contact.

“Sadly, we cannot be too careful,” Bannigan says. “Our industry is rife with scammers trying to steal money from buyers, sellers and real estate brokers.”

Morganstern concurs, adding, “Real estate is very local. If it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true.”