By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
The Bahamas Real Estate Association’s (BREA) president yesterday urged realtors to be more vigilant in combating fraud and increase their awareness of Know Your Customer (KYC) principles.
Christine Wallace-Whitfield told Tribune Business: “It is important to know that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is doing their best in trying to weed out fraudsters, and doing their due diligence and making sure the public is informed and protected.”
She was responding to reports that a real estate scam is being conducted in The Bahamas.
The FIU in recent months said it has seen an increase in suspicious transaction reports (STR) where an individual contacts a real estate agent or law firm via e-mail, requesting assistance or representation from these companies with respect to the purchase of real estate in The Bahamas.
Once the individual has been made aware of the retainer and KYC documentation required, they will forward the paperwork to support the request. However, all the documents are fraudulent.
The retainer amount is often overpaid when sent either directly to the law firm or the law firm’s bank. The individual then immediately requests a refund of the overstated amount, with the hope that all funds are remitted prior to the original cheque payment being cleared.
Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said: “It is important that we do our due diligence, especially for the real estate community - from agents to brokers and brokerage firms - to make sure that if we see anything suspicious that we report it, because for real estate this is our livelihood and we do not want to get caught in a situation where we have to then answer to authorities. So prevention is better than cure.”
Acknowledging the “savvy times” that have seen a proliferation of fraudulent schemes, Mrs Wallace-Whitfield said she has seen similar scams before in The Bahamas.
She recalled: “I haven’t seen one of these types of schemes in a long time, but I’ve heard of people trying to be dishonest.
“I’ve heard stories but I have never heard of anything that has hit this close to home in terms of the real estate community. I have heard of stories. Scamsters are trying every day. We have a big real estate community, so people will try. They will try their utmost to be dishonest with property dealings by using aliases and, unfortunately, these things happen.”
Warning realtors to report such matters to the FIU immediately, Mrs Wallace-Whitfield charged: “They need to inform the FIU, because BREA has met with them in the past. This is something that we need to do and inform real estate companies and members about why it is important to fill out the KYC documentation, so persons can be stopped at the beginning and not at the end.”
The FIU also warned any individual or financial institution that has been approached by someone using any of the names “Andrew Franklin; Franklin Andrew; Frank Andrews; or Frank Andrew”, or a variation thereof, to contact them immediately.
The FIU recommended institutions stop depositing any cheques remitted to them by this person and discontinue any communication with the individual.
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