A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.
Happy Monday!
We’ve got a stretch of warm weather ahead of us, with the highs sticking in the 50s across much of the state this week. Temperatures could even reach into the high 60s in Portland by next Monday.
This week also will give us a small break from the recent wet weather. The forecast is quite dry.
A nor’easter will pass very far to our south, bringing choppy seas and gusty winds Tuesday to Wednesday.
A Maine family bought land on MDI with dreams of building a home. Then a scammer tried to sell it.
Several years ago, Haley and Michael Walcott of Bucksport bought a nearly 3-acre plot of land in Bar Harbor, where they would one day build a home.
This spring a real estate agent, who had been approached about selling the acreage but noticed signs of fraud, contacted the Walcotts to warn them that a scammer was apparently targeting their property. And when they drove by it later, the Walcotts found a “for sale” sign on their land.
The family’s property nearly fell victim to a fraud scheme in which a scammer impersonated Michael Walcott, and real estate agents unknowingly put it on the market without the rightful owner’s knowledge.
While the scam was caught before money changed hands, it’s a prime example of deed fraud attempts that have become a growing risk to both Maine real estate agents and unassuming prospective buyers.
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From the Opinion Page
“It’s easy for a candidate to criticize and cast aspersions. It’s harder to write legislation that can get through a sharply divided Senate.”