5 Actions to Combat the Rise in AI-Generated Deepfake Real Estate Scams

For real estate owners and investors, everything seems real until it isn’t.

That’s what happens in a modern real estate scam in which deepfake voices are used to fool third parties into altering wire instructions and fabricated legal documents facilitate the transfer of property to criminals. Cybercrooks will have already hacked into escrow transaction emails and can redirect funds to the criminals’ accounts.

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has taken scams to a new level. Fake documents, voices and even video calls appear so real that only experts may know the difference — and not always.

The cost of deepfake real estate scams

By 2027, AI-generated fraud will cost $40 billion annually, compared with $12.3 billion in 2023.¹ Business email compromise (BEC) scams, which are an issue for real estate operations, are on the rise as criminals using AI produce fake documents that are hard to disprove. A single bad actor can target multiple victims with a single keystroke.

Large companies are not immune: A British engineering firm sent $25 million to bad actors after AI-generated deepfakes fooled a finance worker into believing the people and voices in video calls were real.²

As wire transfers are essential in commercial real estate, they are particularly vulnerable to scams — and AI provides enhanced tools to commit wire fraud.³ For instance, a scammer using generative AI only needs a 30-second recording of a manager’s voice to create a spoofed audio recording. Then, a person managing money in escrow may receive a call with new instructions on a wire transfer to a scammer’s account that convinces the manager to proceed.

AI has also accelerated title deed fraud. While perhaps the most prominent example is the case of a $137.5 million L.A. mansion,⁴ it can affect commercial properties as well, including Graceland, the home of the late Elvis Presley and a major tourist attraction.⁵ Scammers use AI to produce documents for local authorities that transfer property ownership from their rightful owners. The criminals may hold the property hostage for ransom before the owner can sell it.

How to help protect real estate operations from AI-generated fraud

Here are five actions commercial real estate owners and investors can take to combat the rise in AI-generated fraud:

1. Educate workers. As with all fraud, education and training are the bulwark against cybercrime. Those handling escrow, legal documents and third-party transactions should be trained to recognize that no matter how legitimate a document may appear, they should be wary of all remote transactions.

2. Verify everything. All documents and requests to change banking information must be verified. Making a deal or sending money simply based on a video call or a voice message can be disastrous. If possible, real estate investors should meet potential partners in person, or at a minimum, implement out-of-band authentication protocols.

3. Recognize warning signs. Potential sellers refusing to meet in person or to verify their IDs are clear signs of possible chicanery. And if a seller doesn’t seem to know much about the property for sale or wants to conduct a transaction in great haste, consider it a four-alarm warning.

4. Use AI against scammers. Even though artificial intelligence has made deepfake real estate fraud worse than ever, AI-powered monitoring systems can analyze communications for warning signs, and algorithms can help detect fraudulent documents.

5. Invest in cyber insurance: For cyber policies, insurance companies not only will cover claims, but also actively monitor risk to help reduce fraud. As a result, cyber insurance is not just a backstop but a tool in risk management.

HUB International’s real estate experts can help with AI-generated real estate fraud prevention and ensure transactions are legitimate.

¹ Deloitte, “Generative AI is expected to magnify the risk of deepfakes and other fraud in banking,” May 29, 2024.
² CNN, “Finance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake ‘chief financial officer’,” February 4, 2024.
³ Finance & Commerce, “Experts urge caution when using AI in commercial real estate,” October 14, 2025.
⁴ Business Insider, “Scammers are stealing homes from under their owners' noses. AI is making it scarily easy.” October 22, 2024.
⁵ Business Insider, “Missouri woman charged in scheme to steal Graceland from Elvis Presley's granddaughter, Riley Keough,” August 16, 2024.