A con man is exploiting a loophole in public records access to target South Florida real estate lenders and landowners.

Based on little more than his charm, a fake driver's license and forged corporate documents altered on a government-run website for $50, he posed as a Boca Raton doctor and walked away with $550,000 from hard-money lenders in Fort Lauderdale.

People involved in the transaction say he spoke at length about his real estate holdings, didn't flinch when questioned, and was so convincing that when a private detective later inquired about the deal, lenders were suspicious of the investigator, not the fraudster.

“Next thing we know, we found out this person isn't who they said they were,” said Alain Villar, the independent mortgage broker who originated the deal. “The person who went to the closing was not really the owner.”

It was too late.

What remained was a smattering of clues—all eventual dead ends—and a real-life whodunit, complete with finger-pointing, misdirection, burner phones, cold trails, a mystery woman and plenty of unanswered questions about the high-stakes shakedown.

This story was originally published on Daily Business Review, a sister publication of GlobeSt.com. Click here to continue reading the full story.

A con man is exploiting a loophole in public records access to target South Florida real estate lenders and landowners.

It was too late.

This story was originally published on Daily Business Review, a sister publication of GlobeSt.com. Click here to continue reading the full story.

Instant Insights /

How a New Kind of Fraud Puts South Florida Real Estate Owners, Lenders at Risk

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