New laws to help protect property owners from Nigerian scammers

Property owners living abroad who are concerned about the current spate of fraudulent property sales or attempted sales are urged to lodge a caveat over their properties to reduce the risk of being targeted by scammers.

The recommended anti-fraud measure prevents the registration of any change of ownership or mortgage.

Caveats typically require attendance in person at the various state title offices by completing a 100-point identity check.

The safeguards have been recommended in Western Australia after authorities began investigating two successful Nigerian scammers who sold Perth properties without the owners' knowledge in the past year.

In WA under a range of increased security measures, all transfers of land executed overseas will now require a 100-point identity check, signatures to be witnessed by an Australian Consular officer, and the sales will need to be independently checked by at least two senior Landgate officers.

Identity checks by real estate agents and the conveyancer are not mandatory.

Rather than the transfer of land not owned by the scammer, NSW has in the past years experienced mortgage fraud, where unencumbered titles are borrowed against without the owner’s knowledge.

But new regulations will come into force on November 1 that require a witness to a land dealing or caveat to have known the person signing the dealing or caveat for more than 12 months.

If the witness has not known the person for that length of time, he or she must take reasonable steps to confirm the identity of that person.

A person who is asked to witness a signature to a land dealing must sight an original primary identification document containing a photograph of the person (such as a driver’s licence or passport), or originals of two non-photographic identification documents (such as a birth certificate and Medicare card) that confirm the identity of the person signing the land dealing.

“The requirement to verify identity is an essential safeguard against fraud in conveyancing transactions,” Des Mooney, general manager of NSW Land and Property Information, says.

“The regulatory changes outlined above are intended to balance the need for an efficient conveyancing and financing industry with the need to manage the risk of fraud or improper dealings in transactions with land.”