Turnabout's Unfair Play: The CFE Gets Defrauded

FROM THE FRAUD EXAMINER

Annette Simmons-Brown, CFE
Former Senior Paralegal, Hennepin County Attorney's Office

One would think that a CFE with over nine years of experience assisting in the prosecution of white-collar crimes would be somewhat Zen about being the victim of a fraud attempt herself. One would think that, and one would be wrong.

After three days of driving from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to our new hometown of Tallahassee, Florida, our real estate agent, my husband and I stood in the kitchen of the house we had under contract. This house showed really well, had great curb appeal and we were scheduled to buy it 21 hours later.

This house that we loved and were planning to make our new home was a complete and total pigsty. There were piles of personal junk in the corners of every room and the garage. Lateral blinds hung from window frames and there was a newly-torn-out section of screen in the back porch that the property inspection had not noted. The bathrooms had spots galore and the self-cleaning oven looked radioactive.

The three of us stood there after our walk-through, speechless. It was clear that the sellers, having already moved into their new home, had abandoned any pretense of getting the property ready for closing. It was equally clear there was no way the house would be move-in ready within 21 hours.

Then my husband remarked, “Wait a minute.” He stared at the refrigerator for a few seconds. “This isn’t the refrigerator that was in the listing sheets.”

We pulled up the online listing, and sure enough, the gorgeous and huge stainless steel refrigerator that was featured prominently in the listing photos was nowhere in this kitchen. Instead there was an older, smaller, inferior stainless steel fridge in its place.

We agreed that we would not close on the property given its condition and the sellers’ bait-and-switch with an inferior major appliance. Because my husband and I were so punch-drunk from selling our own house and moving across the country, we told our agent that we would keep the purchase contract alive if the sellers dropped the price by $5,000. Our agent called the listing agent and left an angry voicemail detailing the terrible conditions of the house and our revised offer. We went back to our hotel room in the driving rain and waited.

One would think that the listing agent and his broker would be grateful for our willingness to go through with the purchase at all given how he and the sellers tried to defraud us. One would think that, and one would be wrong.

Read the rest of Annette's story on ACFE.com in The Fraud Examiner newsletter's archives.