Identity fraud has started to hit property owners, with properties being sold to unsuspecting buyers and without the real owners knowing about it.
The Daily News in Durban has identified eight instances where properties have been sold, and in some the transfer had gone through the Deeds Office, without the knowledge of the true landowners.
In one instance two brothers had paid R165 000 cash for a house, and had done R50 000 in renovations when the real owner returned from his rural home and found renovations in progress.
Brothers Ngcebo and Sandile Ngcobo, of KwaMashu, said they had forked out more than R200 000 buying and renovating an “abandoned” house they had bought from a man who they have since learnt had used a bogus ID when he posed as the owner.
This story first appeared on Dud ID scams hit property sales – Crime & Courts | IOL News | IOL.co.za.
