BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio — Let’s get the obvious joke out of the way: We’re not sure if a “Nigerian prince” was behind it.
Nonetheless, police are warning against increasingly convincing attempts to steal people’s property in Northeast Ohio.
In a span of two weeks, two different property owners reported to Broadview Heights police that they learned their vacant lots were up for sale.
The problem was — they didn’t list them for sale.
In both cases, police were able to link the fraudulent seller and their online profile to the same phone number.
“That number was an international phone number that came back to Nigeria,” Detective Sergeant Ryan Fewell with Broadview Heights police said. “Also the IP address information for the logins also were linked to Nigeria. You can use a VPN to spoof the information as well. So, that doesn’t necessarily mean someone is sitting in Nigeria and is responsible, but a lot of times these will come from out of state or out of the country.”
In the first case, the police report details how a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker listed a vacant piece of land along Diana Drive in early March.
The homeowner discovered the sign and explained he had no intention of selling the property. That lot was vacant after the homeowner’s house burned down in 2017.
That real estate agent told police that someone had called him claiming to be the homeowner, even providing their name, date of birth, and mailing address. The land was listed for $150,000.
“We haven’t experienced it much here,” Fewell said. “This was our first, but a couple weeks later we did experience a very similar case.”
Two weeks later, police received another call about a vacant piece of property along Broadview Road, involving a different owner and a different real estate agent.
That agent told police all his correspondence with the “seller” was done through phone calls and emails.
“All the added technology that has made our lives easier has also made it easier for scammers to get our stuff,” Fewell said.
Police were able to intervene and shut down the listings for both properties before a sale could be completed.
So, how did this happen?
News 5 spoke with one of the real estate agents involved. He said he received an email and then spoke on the phone with the “seller.”
The agent said he even ran a background check on the seller. Other than the phone number used, the agent said everything lined up.
And that’s what police say is worrisome, adding that people need to stay on top of their property.
“Don’t let things go unnoticed for months on end,” Fewell said. “Don’t let a piece of property sit without driving past it, checking up on it.”
On several occasions, News 5 tried calling that number tied to Nigeria, but no one answered.
In both of these cases, Fewell said the actual property owners spotted the for-sale listings quickly, and police were able to remove them before the properties could be sold.
So far, no arrests have been made.
These two cases mark the latest instances in Northeast Ohio where a criminal tried to steal someone’s property, and in some cases succeeded.
In January, Boston Heights police began investigating a similar situation, tied to a phone number from Germany:
This couple’s property was put up for sale without their knowledge
In 2024, News 5 reported throughout the year on three different property owners who saw their vacant land and rental homes transferred out of their name from fraudulent deed transfer documents:
He was convicted of stealing 19 homes in Cuyahoga County. How is that even possible?
In all three cases, lengthy court battles were required to reclaim the property, and in two cases, those legal proceedings are still ongoing.
How can you protect yourself from deed theft and fraudulent listings?
Experts told News 5 that time is crucial in cases like this. The more time a criminal has to sell your property and run off with the money, the harder it is to recover. That’s why many Ohio counties offer free property alerts, a way to notify you if any properties of yours have transferred on the day it happens.
To sign up for a free property alert provided by your county of residence, click on your county where your property is located below:
However, property alerts are unable to protect against property theft until it has already happened. In both of the Broadview Heights cases, a property alert to the homeowner would not have been sent (unless the criminal was able to successfully sell the home before the homeowners and police noticed).
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard, on Facebook Clay LePard News 5 or email him at Clay.LePard@WEWS.com.
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