Scams or Fake clients

Anybody noticing more fraudulent activity in our industry lately? I recently had a client who was under contract to purchase a home, scheduled inspections, but then ghosted everybody involved before sending earnest money or paying for inspections. Phone number is not accepting calls. Was supposedly approved for a VA loan on an above average home. In my experience, most VA loans are for homes in lower price ranges and usually fixer-uppers. Realtor says when they lookup the phone number on Forewarn it shows addresses matching what the client provided. My gut tells me this is someone casing a realtor/brokerage or property to learn more about the process in order to conduct a scam, either by creating fake listings, creating similar email addresses to pose as agent, or use your imagination. The phone number has an area code highly associated with fraud, for whatever reason. Maybe this will be helpful to someone else out there. Trust your gut if something feels off.

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