What about sinking 3 2x4s into the ground and nailing a 4x8 sheet of plywood with a tastefully painted sign indicating the property is not for sale?

It won't stop everyone but any realtor doing due diligence will likely see it. If is lasts long enough, it will show up on Google street view as well.

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dh2022 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think these days the easiest thing is to take a HELOC loan backed by the property. Do not withdraw money from HELOC and pay the $125/year fee. This puts a lien on the property. (The article alluded to this solution by noting these scammers avoid properties with a mortgage).

	▲	charles_f 11 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I eas thinking of purposefully not paying some kind of invoice to trigger a lien but this way seems more legitimate
	▲	NooneAtAll3 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		great now you made banks interested in supporting these scams

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teeray 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

A motivated attacker need only don a green safety vest and hard hat, then roll up with a white pickup truck, place some orange safety cones and take down the sign with a chainsaw.

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jgoldshlag 20 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The point is that nearly all of the people doing this don't even live in the country where the land is being sold from. A simple sign would probably be quite effective

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Cthulhu_ 30 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I'm sure you could put an ad up on craigslist or fiverr or whatever, one asking for someone to take photos of the property to see if there is a sign, and another to remove it. There's plenty of people willing to do anything for money.

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teeray 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

True, but you can still do a confused deputy attack. The fraudster hires a property manager, informs them that they would like to remove the sign because they wish the list the property for sale. Either that or they con a realtor they're working with into doing it. The unknowing realtor, eager for the commission, knows a guy who can take it down.

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zamadatix 20 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There's always something that can happen in any scenario. Social engineering, hiring locals, deeper forms of identity theft, or worse. The possibilities never hit 0, they just become a lot less profitable (and a lot riskier) a scam to try to run.

	▲	SOLAR_FIELDS 13 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, locks aren’t there to prevent the determined thief. They are for the 99% of other opportunists that will move on to an easier target immediately when they see your lock is harder to defeat

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teachrdan 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

For those like me who didn't know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confused_deputy_problem

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bjt 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The idea is just to avoid being the softest target. The scammers attempting this fraud don't want to do all the work you describe. They'll just move on to the next vacant property.

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1970-01-01 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Who's paying for it? Are they working for free?

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woah 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The realtor might pay for it or even do it themselves. It would take 5 minutes with a reciprocating saw. Or the scammer tells the realtor "never mind that" and the realtor tells the buyer.

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bluGill 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No, but paying someone $300 is cheap when you hope to get a check for several hundred thousand in a few months. (even if the scam is only to get the earnest money that is still a $300 investment for the final thousand or two you make - with very little work)

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margalabargala 17 hours ago | parent [-]

That's a lot of work plus money transfer paper trail for something like this.

	▲	bluGill 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Presumably the money trail leeds to the Caymon islands or other country where they won't assist investigation.

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thekevan 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Note that in the article, the author says how the scammers do everything to avoid having to show up in person. That's because they are in a different country and try to commit the scam without setting foot in the US.