Buying a new house is stressful enough. But scammers have found a way to heighten the angst by posing as participants in real estate deals. The Washington Post reported in December that a Virginia woman was conned into wiring a $255,000 down payment to a scammer after receiving what she thought was a legitimate email with wiring instructions from the title company.

The email did not have the tell-tale signs of fraud: no typos, grammatical errors or other red flags. That’s because it was likely written with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which can create conversational language that sounds just like real life.

Raegan Bartlo eventually got half of her money back, but she was still out more than $100,000. “It was terrifying. You feel violated. I thought we lost everything,” she told the Washington Post.

Experts say that criminals are increasingly using AI to pose as trusted professionals in real estate deals – whether it’s the title company, real estate agency, or bank.

Fraudsters unearth personal information about the deals in public records, and then use AI-created videos, emails, and audiotapes to interact with unsuspecting participants.

As an increasing number of real estate deals are conducted virtually, participants should be aware of the risks.

The FBI warned in December that criminals were using AI tools in all sorts of financial scams. Realtor Magazine reported last year that “sophisticated scammers can hijack real estate transactions using deepfake audio and video to impersonate agents and other parties involved in a home purchase.”

The magazine cited the case of a Hong Kong investor who lost $25 million in a real estate scam in which the scammer participated in a live video call and described AI tools as “the next frontier in real estate scams.” The report emphasized that consumers need to be warned to be on the lookout for fraud.

To protect against AI fraud in real estate transactions, experts suggest that consumers independently verify the wiring instructions for down payments and other transactions through a separate phone call − before sending any money.