Representatives from Florida Title and Trust logged onto a Zoom meeting with Margaret McCartney to verify her identity before moving forward with the sale of her vacant property in Hallandale Beach.
It did not go as planned.
Instead of meeting McCartney, they joined the call with an AI deepfake impersonating an older woman, Local 10 News reported.
“It shocked me to see a video that was clearly not a person,” Florida Title and Trust President Lauren Albrecht told the outlet.
The scammer had used the photo of a 76-year-old missing woman from California to create the McCartney deepfake. They had doctored a license and passport with the photo, and accepted an offer for $52,000 for the land, WSVN reported. Thankfully the scammers did not do a very good job. Albrecht told WSVN she quickly realized McCartney was an AI dupe.
“I caught it, but that doesn’t stop them from going to another realtor or another title company and trying it with somebody else,” she told the news channel.
The National Association of Realtors published a story in March concerning AI fraud in real estate, calling it the “next frontier of real estate scams,” and highlighting a case in Hong Kong where a financier was tricked into wiring $25 million by an AI deepfake of his company’s chief financial officer.
Though the technology is still primitive, it will continue to improve, which could lead to a wave of incidents. The Broward County Property Appraiser’s office is already working on an AI real estate fraud case, and expects more to come, it confirmed to Local 10 News.
“It’s just going to get more sophisticated, Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar told the outlet, and added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if more people utilize this type of technology to fool many people in our community.”
–– Kate Hinsche