A REAL estate agent fell victim to a scam after she had her late father’s home sold against her will, finding it empty of her family’s possessions.
The home should have been on the county assessor’s website under the woman’s father’s name who had died in March 2018, but instead, she found it listed on Zillow.
A woman realized her father’s home was sold out from under her as part of a scamCredit: Arizona’s Family
She said that the home belonged to Zillow and as a real estate agent, she was able to see that it was empty and soldCredit: Arizona’s Family
In 2019, when Debi Gotlieb looked up her father’s Arizona home’s address while his will was going through probate, she found that it belonged to Zillow and it “showed that it was on the market,” she told Arizona’s Family in 2022.
“I went to the Multiple Listings Service, and it was empty.”
All her father’s things were gone.
Gotlieb said she was sobbing and immediately drove to the home.
She also called the real estate agent who sold the house to Zillow and the police.
“I told the police, “I don’t know what happened, but it’s cleaned out, and it’s not in my name.” And he said, ‘Stay out of the house. It’s not your house,'” Gotlieb recalled.
The frantic agent hired lawyer David Degan to help her get the home back.
“When Debi came to me, the immediate response was how are we going to get this woman’s house back?” he said.
He knew they had to act fast because if it sold again, it would become even more challenging to get it back to her.
“We had to get the property back immediately,” Degnan said.
DEED FRAUD
Through the process of getting her father’s home back, Gotlieb learned she had been the victim of deed fraud.
Jesi Wolnik, a real estate agent, said there are many different stories about how deed fraud can happen.
According to a study done by a title company, about 90% of deed fraud is done by family or friends of the victim, while the other 10% are criminals targeting strangers, Wolnik shared.
“They’re creating fake documents. They’re recording them,” she told the outlet.
“They’re obviously very successful, or they would not be doing this.”
Luckily, Degan was able to secure Gotlieb’s home back after sending a letter to Zillow.
“Unfortunately, in 2019, Zillow was made aware of an identity theft related to a home we purchased, so we withdrew the sale and returned the deed to the family,” a Zillow spokesperson told the outlet.
ARRESTED AND CHARGED
The Scottsdale Police Department worked tirelessly to figure out how this happened to Gotlieb.
In December 2021, they arrested Vicente Anzu, 30, of California.
Anzu was charged with theft, forgery, and identity theft in connection to the crime.
He was able to impersonate Gotlieb’s father when he presented himself as the homeowner.
“The criminal had an ID, and it showed that he was born in 1988. My dad bought the house in 1978. Nobody put that together,” said Gotlieb.
Anzu had reportedly also signed notarized documents in California which was helpful when detectives were looking for a culprit.
I told the police, “I don’t know what happened, but it’s cleaned out, and it’s not in my name.” And he said, ‘Stay out of the house. It’s not your house.’
Debi Gotlieb
“If he would have signed here, he would have never been caught. But in California, the two notaries took fingerprints. Here we don’t take fingerprints,” she said.
THE HARDEST PART
Though she was able to get the home back, her father’s items were gone.
The suspect, or his partner-in-crime, told the real estate agents to get rid of everything in the home when they sold it, according to police reports.
“All of our family pictures were gone. They tossed them. So it was, it was hard,” Gotlieb told the outlet.
Wolnik also commented on the saddening matter asking, “Who really would get rid of every family mementos, medals, certificates, photos? Things that can’t be replaced?”
After the incident was over, Gotlieb admitted to being very frustrated no one caught that the sale was a scam.
“I, today, could get a fake ID and go record a deed and own your house,” she said.