On January 14th, the Arizona MLS system showed a new Sedona property listing for a vacant lot at 550 Windsong Drive near Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park. The 4,792-square-foot lot was priced at $180,000 and was listed by Magdalena Romanska of Russ Lyon Sotheby’s.

Six days later, on January 20th, the list disappeared.

Rather than being taken down due to a quick sale or a change of heart on the part of the owner, it turns out the listing was taken down when a listing agent discovered that her apparent client was actually impersonating the owner. bottom.

Romanska said the putative owner of the property claimed to be the wife of professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. Tony Hawk said she was married to Erin J. Hawke from 1996 until she was married to 2004, and according to Yavapai County property records, Windsong owned her drive lot in Erin Jennifer because she’s Hawke. , this claim seemed plausible.

Erin Hawk, the California owner of the Windsong Drive lot, has confirmed that she was previously married to Tony Hawk.

Nonetheless, the scammer’s claimed identity later became one of the “red flags” that led to suspicions of Romanska, who has worked with celebrities in the past and manages real estate transactions. I said there will always be handlers and lawyers. She had no one to deal with her directly.

“There was nothing awkward about that time,” Romanska said of her first interaction with the impersonator. At her scammer’s suggestion, she recommended a list price for the parcel between her $155,000 and her $185,000. The crooks then completed the necessary paperwork and property disclosure.

The red flags kept going up. Another agent told Romanska that the land was part of the Homeowners Association, but Romanska saw that it was not listed on the property disclosure. She also noticed the fact that

Romanska also notices that the phone number of the prospective customer (area code 919) does not match the phone number on the property owner’s list (area code 760). Her clients used to call her to reply to texts and emails, but she couldn’t reach clients on her phone and every time she tried she was redirected to her recording.

“It was very clever by the scammer,” commented Romanska.

Scammers additionally provided what Romanska called “a very common psychological bait” by attempting to establish a connection with the victim. Romanska was born and raised in Poland, so her pseudo-client claimed to be traveling in Poland. This is another claim Romanska questioned when she noticed that the timestamps on the messages she received didn’t match her eight-hour time difference in the West. USA and Europe.

Her suspicions left Romanska with problems. Once a property is for sale, it cannot be taken down without the owner’s permission. Unless, of course, the actual owner never listed the property in the first place.

“When you have an intuition, you can’t act on it right away,” Romanska said.

Since there was an example of the putative seller’s signature on the electronically signed document, Romanska contacted the title agent that had previously dealt with the property to ensure that the owner’s signature on file matched the signature received. I checked whether She also contacted the president of HOA, who contacted her Erin Hawk to confirm that the list was fraudulent.

“He kindly called me the next morning,” Romanska said.

After notifying Arizona MLS of the fraud, she said they were “very cooperative” and removed the listing very quickly.

Since then, Romanska has received emails from title agencies praising her for successfully catching the scam based on early indications. At the same time, she is unsure of how to prevent this from happening again. She pitched the idea of ​​asking the seller for two of her IDs in the future, which she dismissed as probably ineffective.

“Every teenager has a fake ID,” laughs Romanska.

Sotheby’s manager Todd Christensen said, “When you find yourself in this kind of fraud situation, it’s almost impossible to track them down.” Noting that it would take place within the FBI’s jurisdiction rather than local police, he added that the legal owner of the property would be the appropriate person to lodge a complaint.

“What’s a little shocking to me is that Sotheby’s didn’t require identification to list this lot,” Erin Hawke said. I think there is also an I.”

The first time Hawke heard about the attempted sale was when the president of HOA contacted her to ask if she had actually listed the property. Hawke owns her adjoining house, and she bought the property to preserve the views and open spaces with the idea that her children might one day build on it. she was surprised to see her on the list.

“I’m a little surprised there hasn’t been any further follow-up,” Hawke added. “My husband is due to check in on them this week.” I suggested Googleing the land once a month to keep an eye on the behavior.

Referring to the recent wave of high-end real estate fraud in Phoenix and Park City, Utah, Hawk said, “As fraud becomes more prevalent in our community, we need to learn to adapt.

Hawk plans to file a police report on the incident in the near future.