Real Estate Fraud Growing Industry In South Florida As Scammers Embrace AI Technology

About this episode

In this episode of the Condo Capitalism™ podcast, Kevin Tacher of Independence Title warns that AI-driven property theft and deep-fake scams are targeting South Florida property owners.

Condo Capitalism™ is the weekly podcast hosted by Peter Zalewski of the Miami Condo Investing Club™ that provides data-driven analysis on distressed real estate—foreclosures, shortsales and bank-owned REOs—in the tricounty South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

The program dissects players and trends, focusing on the escalating Florida Condo Association Financial Cliff, which is now fully underway as cash-strapped unit owners face rising maintenance fees, hefty special assessments and pricey insurance.

On the show, experts analyze how the national “two-sided risk”—rising inflation and falling employment—magnifies the growing crisis in Florida, revealing where high post-Surfside condo fees clash with a softening resale market to expose the potential for a capitulation by unit owners who can no longer afford condo living.

Episode Overview

In the Nov. 20, 2025, episode of Condo Capitalism - A Miami Distressed Real Estate Market Podcast, host Peter Zalewski interviewed Kevin Tacher, the founder and CEO of Independence Title in Fort Lauderdale, about the growing threats of property fraud in South Florida as a result of technological advancements being embraced by scammers.

A surge in illicit activity is now pressuring the industry throughout the tricounty region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

Criminals have dramatically evolved their tactics, moving away from simple physical forgery toward modern digital interception.

Tacher said that fraud is a constant, escalating threat with hundreds of scams occurring each day.

While deed fraud involving vacant lots remains a threat, the more lucrative enterprise is wire fraud.

Tacher detailed a specific phishing technique where hackers compromise email accounts and monitor correspondence between realtors, buyers and title agents.

At the critical moment before closing, the perpetrators send modified wiring instructions from a spoofed address, often changing a single letter in the domain name.

Even Tacher’s own firm was targeted, suffering a $275,000 loss due to a sophisticated email compromise, though most of the funds were eventually recovered through aggressive intervention.

This alarming incident is chronicled in Tacher’s book, Intercepted: A True Story of Wire Fraud And The Race to Recover, which details the relentless, multi-agency race involving the FBI and Secret Service to freeze the fraudulent account.

In one cited case, a buyer named Patricia Verlino lost about $63,000 to scammers after sending funds to a fraudulent account.

Ultimately, Verlino was made whole with donations to an online fund raising website and money that was clawed back by law enfocement.

The executive emphasized that federal agencies, including the FBI and Secret Service, often move too slowly to intercept stolen funds once wire transfers are executed.

The next frontier of illicit activity involves deep-fake technology.

Remote Online Notarization (RON), a digital closing process popularized during the pandemic, is now vulnerable to AI-generated impersonations.

Criminals can potentially use voice cloning and video synthesis to mimic a seller, bypassing traditional identity verification protocols.

Independence Title has countered this by requiring its own vetted notaries to physically or digitally oversee transactions, refusing to accept outside acknowledgments which are often the weak link in the chain of custody.

For owners of mortgage-free property, particularly vacant land or Vintage condos that are at least 30 years old, the risk of title theft is acute.

Tacher recommended a low-cost, high-efficacy defense strategy: recording a small lien against the property.