A couple who entered the United States from Mexico on a tourist visa have been convicted for their roles in a sophisticated real estate fraud that involved selling homes they did not own and laundering about $1 million.
Victor Hugo Villalobos Almazan And Nayeli Noemi Montoya Rodriguez were sentenced in U.S. District Court of Southern California to 27 and 10 months in prison, respectively, after pleading guilty to impersonating legitimate property owners and using forged documents to sell homes they did not own to unsuspecting buyers.
In 2023, Villalobos and Montoya, both Mexican citizens, posed as homeowners of two properties in San Diego and made nearly $1 million from the sales.
The couple sold 3873 36th St., a 7,000-square-foot lot with an abandoned house on it, for $400,000 that actually belonged to the Mary Q. Cam Trust. They posed as trustees of the estate by using an email address similar to the name of the trust, according to their signed consent form.
After selling the property, they found unsuspecting buyers Daniel Magic And Luen H. Lau Transfer funds to an account purporting to be “doing business under the name” Mary Queen Cam Homes.
The other San Diego property they sold, 555 Hollister St., is a 4.46-acre parcel with an unoccupied home on it. This property was owned by DIME Hollister LLC. The couple used another fraudulent email address to sell the property for more than $561,000 and transferred the money to bank accounts in Mexico and Jordan.
Prosecutors said Villalobos and Montoya had a long list of techniques they used to deceive buyers into thinking the deals were legitimate – including conducting all deals by email rather than in person and forging the signatures of the actual homeowners. They also opened bank accounts under names similar to those of the actual, legal property owners.
The couple were arrested at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in November while returning from a trip to Mexico.
They were originally charged with 15 counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. They agreed to a deal in June and both pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges.
“It is hard to imagine a more brazen breach of trust than pretending to own someone else’s home and selling it for personal gain,” the U.S. attorney said Adam Gordon.
However, seller identification scams involving fraudulent impersonation of real estate sellers are becoming increasingly common. The scam typically involves a fraudster creating fake IDs and contacts to impersonate the real owner of a property.
The scammers often work with reputable real estate agents and brokers to create a real estate document trail and market an available property. Once the property is sold, the funds are usually transferred to an overseas or offshore bank account for laundering.
A 2024 study by the American Land Title Association found that 28% of title insurance companies experienced at least one incident of seller impersonation fraud in the past 12 months.
A 2025 National Association of Realtors® survey found that this type of fraud is most common in cities and urban areas. Regionally, 92% of Real Estate Agents® in the Northeast said they knew of seller identification fraud in their region, compared to 53% in the Midwest, 59% in the South and 59% in the West.
In the vast majority of cases, survey respondents said the fraud was related to vacant land, while only 12% involved owner-occupied properties.
Not surprisingly, seller identification fraud occurs most often with vacant land or unoccupied homes. Scammers also often targeted unoccupied investment properties and items owned by a recently deceased homeowner.
Potential buyers can protect themselves from these fraudulent deals by being aware of several red flags, including using an unknown notary and requiring transactions to be conducted in cash only.
The Realtors Land Institute warns that sellers are asking for values well below market value and closings too quickly. Sellers refusing to meet in person or via video call are also a clue, as are properties without an outstanding mortgage and deals that require transactions to be processed through multiple countries.
If you believe you have been a victim of seller fraud, experts recommend filing a report with the police and FBI and notifying the title company.
