Real estate scams change.

Technology changes. The methods change. The messages get more convincing.

But the fundamentals of protecting yourself haven't changed nearly as much.

You don't need to become an expert on every scam happening in California.

You need to know when to stop and verify.

Whether you're buying your first home, selling a property you've owned for 30 years, responding to an unexpected cash offer, wiring money into escrow, hiring a contractor, managing an investment property, or navigating financial hardship, there are a few questions I believe everyone should ask before money, property, or signatures change hands.

So instead of giving you another list of scams to memorize, I want to give you something more useful.

A checklist.

Save it. Screenshot it. Send it to someone buying a home. Share it with a parent who owns property. Pull it back up when something lands in your mailbox that doesn't quite feel right.

Because sometimes the most important decision you make in real estate is deciding not to act until you've asked another question.

The Five Things I Want You to Verify

Before you sign, send, or sell, verify five things:

The person.

The money.

The property.

The paperwork.

The pressure.

Let's walk through each one.

1. Verify the Person

Someone knowing information about you or your property doesn't automatically make them legitimate.

Think about how much information exists publicly or can be obtained online.

Your name.

A property address.

Ownership records.

Information about a listing.

Professional license information.

Photos.

Company logos.

Social media profiles.

Today's scammers can use legitimate information to build an illegitimate identity.

That's why verification needs to go beyond, "They seemed to know what they were talking about."

Before doing business with someone, ask:

☐ Have I independently verified this person's identity?

☐ If they claim to be licensed, have I checked the appropriate licensing authority?

☐ Does the person contacting me actually match the person associated with that license?

☐ Have I independently researched the company?

☐ Does their email address actually belong to the organization they claim to represent?

☐ Does their phone number match independently available information?

☐ If they contacted me through social media, have I verified them somewhere outside that platform?

Here's an important distinction:

A real license number doesn't necessarily mean you're talking to the real licensee.

Impersonation scams can involve legitimate names, photographs, brokerage information, listings, and professional license numbers.

Don't only verify the credential.

Verify the person using it.

2. Verify the Money

Whenever money is moving, your level of verification should go up.

Real estate transactions can involve significant sums of money, sometimes moving with very little margin for error.

A buyer may be wiring a down payment.

A seller may be expecting proceeds.

A homeowner may be paying a contractor.

A tenant may be sending a security deposit.

A distressed homeowner may be paying someone who claims they can provide assistance.

An investor may be asking for funds.

Different circumstances. Same rule:

Know where your money is going before you send it.

Ask:

☐ Do I know exactly who is receiving this money?

☐ Do I understand what I'm paying for?

☐ Have I independently verified wiring instructions?

☐ Have the wiring instructions unexpectedly changed?

☐ Am I being asked to send money to a person or account I wasn't expecting?

☐ Am I being asked to use an unusual payment method?

☐ Am I being asked for a significant upfront payment?

☐ Does the payment recipient make sense for the transaction?

And when it comes to wiring money during a real estate transaction, I want you to remember this:

Email is communication. It is not verification.

If you're preparing to wire money to escrow or another settlement professional, independently verify the instructions using contact information you already know to be legitimate.

If the wiring instructions suddenly change, verify them again.

Don't simply respond to the email.

Don't rely exclusively on the phone number provided inside the message you're trying to verify.

Pick up the phone.

A two-minute conversation can protect a life-changing amount of money.

3. Verify the Property

This one doesn't get talked about enough.

Sometimes protecting yourself isn't about catching a sophisticated scam.

It's simply about knowing what you own.

Before making a major decision involving your property, understand the numbers.

Ask:

☐ Do I have a reasonable understanding of my property's current market value?

☐ Do I know approximately what I owe?

☐ Are there liens or other obligations affecting the property?

☐ Do I understand approximately how much equity I have?

☐ If I've received an offer, do I understand how it compares with my other options?

☐ If I own vacant land, a rental, second home, or another property I don't regularly occupy, have I checked whether my county offers property or recording fraud notifications?

This becomes particularly important when someone approaches you about buying your property.

I've said this before in Real Estate Scam Watch, and it's worth repeating:

A cash offer isn't automatically a bad offer.

There are legitimate investors.

There are situations where an off-market sale makes perfect sense.

A homeowner may value speed, privacy, certainty, an as-is sale, flexible possession, fewer contingencies, or the ability to avoid repairs.

Those things have real value.

But so does your equity.

The question isn't simply:

"Is this offer below market value?"

The better question is:

"Do I understand what I'm receiving in exchange for what I'm giving up?"

Know your numbers.

Then make the decision.

4. Verify the Paperwork

Real estate has paperwork.

A lot of it.

And some documents aren't particularly easy to understand.

That's exactly why I never want someone signing something simply because they were told:

"Don't worry. It's standard."

Before you sign:

☐ Have I read the entire document?

☐ Do I understand what I'm agreeing to?

☐ Do I understand what rights I'm giving someone?

☐ Do I understand what happens after I sign?

☐ Are there blank spaces that shouldn't be blank?

☐ Have I been given reasonable time to review it?

☐ Do I know who prepared the document?

☐ Do I need an attorney or another qualified professional to review this?

And please hear me on this:

Not understanding a document is not embarrassing.

Signing something you don't understand because you were embarrassed to ask can create a much bigger problem.

A good professional should be willing to explain the parts within their expertise.

And sometimes the responsible answer from your real estate professional should be:

"This is where I want you to speak with an attorney, CPA, lender, title professional, or another specialist."

Knowing when something is outside our lane is part of advising you well.

5. Verify the Pressure

This may be the most important part of the entire checklist.

Don't only evaluate what someone is offering you.

Pay attention to how they're trying to get you to say yes.

Fraud and predatory behavior frequently depend on emotion:

Fear.

Urgency.

Excitement.

Embarrassment.

Scarcity.

Confusion.

Before making the decision, ask yourself:

☐ Am I being told I have to decide immediately?

☐ Am I afraid something terrible will happen if I don't act right now?

☐ Does this sound almost too good to be true?

☐ Has someone told me they're my "only option"?

☐ Am I being discouraged from seeking another opinion?

☐ Has someone told me not to contact my lender, escrow officer, attorney, REALTOR®, title professional, family member, or another trusted person?

☐ Is someone making me feel foolish for asking questions?

And here's one of my favorite tests:

Would this opportunity survive one phone call?

Would it survive you verifying the person's identity?

Would it survive a license check?

Would it survive you calling escrow?

Would it survive you reading the agreement carefully?

Would it survive a second opinion?

Would it survive you saying:

"I'm not signing anything until I understand it."

If not, that tells you something.

California Homeowners: Don't Forget About Contractor Scams

Scam Watch isn't only about buying and selling.

Your home can make you a target long after you receive the keys.

Home-improvement fraud deserves particular attention, especially when someone appears at your door offering repairs or when communities are recovering from wildfires, storms, or other disasters.

Before hiring someone:

☐ Verify the contractor's license with the California Contractors State License Board when licensing is required.

☐ Get the agreement in writing.

☐ Understand the payment schedule.

☐ Be cautious about large upfront payments.

☐ Don't allow payments to get substantially ahead of the work being completed.

California generally limits the down payment on a home-improvement contract to $1,000 or 10% of the contract price, whichever is less, subject to certain exceptions.

Contractor and disaster-recovery scams deserve their own Scam Watch conversations, and we'll get into both.

And If You're Facing Foreclosure, Time Matters

There is another group I want to address separately.

Homeowners in distress.

I've seen firsthand how vulnerability can attract the wrong people.

I once met with a homeowner who had been told:

"Give me $5,000 and I can make the foreclosure stop."

They wired the money.

The person disappeared.

The foreclosure didn't.

What stayed with me wasn't only the $5,000.

It was everything that money could have been used for.

And then there was something else the homeowner lost:

Time.

While they believed someone was helping them, the foreclosure timeline continued moving.

By the time I became involved, we had fewer options and less time.

Ultimately, I was able to bring in a reputable investor who could provide what I sometimes call a "white knight" solution. The homeowner was able to receive cash for keys, get additional time in the property to transition, and avoid completing the foreclosure process.

It wasn't a magical ending.

It was the best remaining solution we could create.

And that experience taught me something I won't forget:

Scammers don't just steal money. They steal options.

That's why anyone facing foreclosure should understand their timeline, mortgage balance, property value, equity, and available alternatives as early as possible.

Be especially cautious when someone promises a guaranteed outcome, demands money upfront for supposed foreclosure assistance, tells you to stop communicating with your mortgage servicer, or asks you to transfer ownership of your property.

Difficult does not automatically mean hopeless.

And one person's opinion doesn't have to become your only option.

The Real Estate Scam Watch Five-Step Rule

If you don't remember every checkbox in this article, that's okay.

Remember these five words:

Pause. Verify. Ask. Understand. Decide.

Pause.
Don't allow someone else's urgency to automatically become yours.

Verify.
Confirm the person, money, property, paperwork, and claims independently.

Ask.
Keep asking questions until the answers make sense.

Understand.
Know what you're signing, sending, buying, selling, accepting, or giving up.

Decide.
Then make the decision that's right for your circumstances.

The order matters.

Because we don't want:

Panic. Sign. Pay. Hope.

We want:

Pause. Verify. Ask. Understand. Decide.

Real Estate Scam Watch Is an Ongoing Resource

This isn't a countdown to the end of a series.

Real estate scams will continue evolving, so Real Estate Scam Watch will continue evolving with them.

We'll talk about fake rentals.

Seller impersonation.

Wire fraud.

Contractor scams.

Probate and inheritance scams.

Foreclosure rescue schemes.

Title and deed fraud.

Mortgage scams.

Fake real estate professionals.

AI-enabled impersonation.

Investment scams.

Disaster-recovery scams.

And whatever comes next.

But I don't want the purpose of this series to get lost in all the warnings.

The goal isn't to make you afraid of real estate.

It's to make you more confident navigating it.

I've always believed that the best real estate decisions are made through education, not pressure. Whether someone ultimately buys, sells, keeps their home, or decides to wait, my goal is the same:

To make sure they understand every option available to them.

Because being a Real Estate Advisor means more to me than helping someone complete a transaction.

Sometimes it's helping someone recognize that something isn't right.

Sometimes it's slowing the process down long enough to ask another question.

Sometimes it's explaining the numbers.

And sometimes it's saying, "Before you do anything else, I think you need to speak with this professional."

That's part of the job too.

Protect Your Property. Protect Your Equity. Protect Yourself.

Arielle Dixon, REALTOR®
Christie's International Real Estate Sereno
CalDRE #02056018
510-692-2720
arielledixon.com

This article is provided for general educational purposes only and is not legal, tax, financial, lending, cybersecurity, title, or contracting advice. Fraud schemes and applicable laws can change. Consult the appropriate licensed or qualified professional or government agency regarding your individual circumstances.