Tomas Sulichin, Commercial Broker with Decorus Realty, knew exactly who the guest speaker should be for the Aventura Marketing Council/Chamber of Commerce’s Real Estate Committee that he recently took over as Chairman. “There are so many scams out there nowadays, that I invited attorney Myron Siegel, Siegelaw, to update us on “Common Scams, Title Fraud and Risks for Foreign Buyers and Sellers.” Decorus Realty partners, Gabriel Markovich and David Koster, agreed wholeheartedly. “Having done hundreds of deals with Myron, I know he is incredible!” added Markovich. “He is a unique attorney with a broad base of experience we do not see down here in South Florida and he always delivers what he promises.” The audience composed of many real estate professionals quickly understood why Tomas selected Myron Siegel as the guest speaker.
Siegel is not only an attorney, he is a title agent, former Assistant State Attorney, and former Bankruptcy Trustee involved in rooting out fraud. He is also a former bank director and currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at NSU Shepard Broad College of Law. His presentation was spellbinding, as he covered topics such as ‘the pre-occupancy scam’, ‘the invisible client scam’, ‘the wire fraud scam’, ‘the rental scam’ and ‘general real estate scams’, all punctuated with real-life stories. Siegel also share with the audience how to identify fake documents and money laundering schemes. According to the American Land Title Association, in 2019, there was $221 million lost to wire transfer fraud, and the frauds continue to rise according to the FBI’s 2019 Internet Crime Report. The report shows there were 11,677 victims in 2019 with $221 million in losses. This compares to 11,300 reported victims and $150 million in losses in 2018.
Siegel called us the day after the presentation to let us know that even real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, one of the Shark Tank celebrities, just lost $388,000 by a scammer doing exactly what he described in his presentation to us. He added, “The FBI said that since 2016, $26 billion has been lost through email scams. “
For more information, visit decorusrealty.com; myron.siegel@siegelaw.com , 954-703-1619; aventuramarketingcouncil.com
