South Tampa Real Estate Report

South Tampa Real Estate Market Report | 8/17/25 - 8/23/25

This week's South Tampa Market Snapshot is a PSA about Ghost Title Agencies and Ghost Companies in general (courtesy of Florida Land Title Association). Apparently fraudsters are spoofing title agencies to appear as a real agency in a very sophisticated way. Fraudsters are creating a fake agency on Sunbiz, opening bank accounts tied to the fake agency, creating fake websites, and copying agencies in other ways. Once these fake accounts are opened, the fraudsters contact real estate professionals and consumers to use their fake agency. You know what happens next...someone loses a lot of money. This isn't only happening in the title and real estate fields, companies in other fields have gotten caught up in this mess as well. Here are some ways to check if your business or one you're working with has been spoofed in Florida (not an exhaustive list):

• Visit Sunbiz.org, specifically this page: Search Records - Division of Corporations - Florida Department of State 

  • Using the various search features, check for any duplicates or close to duplicate companies that resemble or are close to your company's name (Name, Officer/Registered Agent, etc.)

  • Pay particular attention to duplicate FEI/EIN registrations

• DNS Twister

  • Check dnstwister.report

  • This web site will perform a search for other domains similar to yours to help identify fake web pages acting as a real company.

Michael Palermo

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