The couple pleaded guilty to bank fraud after selling two properties they did not own and pocketing nearly $1 million.
A married couple who entered the United States from Mexico on tourist visas have been sentenced for their roles in a sophisticated real estate scam that involved selling homes they did not own and laundering approximately $1 million in proceeds.
Victor Hugo Villalobos Almazan and Nayeli Noemi Montoya Rodriguez were sentenced to 27 months and 10 months, respectively, in the U.S. District Court of Southern California after pleading guilty to posing as legitimate property owners and using forged documents to sell homes they did not own to unsuspecting buyers.
In 2023, Villalobos and Montoya, both Mexican nationals, posed as the homeowners of two San Diego properties and made nearly $1 million from the sales.
The pair sold 3873 36th St., a 7,000-square-foot lot with an abandoned home on it, for $400,000, which was actually owned by the Mary Q. Cam trust. They posed as trustees of the estate by using an email address that appeared similar to the name of the trust, according to their signed plea agreement.
After selling the property, they had unsuspecting buyers Daniel Magy and Luen H. Lau transfer funds to an account that purported to be "doing business as" Mary Queen Cam Homes.
The other San Diego property they sold, 555 Hollister St., is a 4.46-acre lot with an uninhabited dwelling on it. That property was owned by D.I.M.E. Hollister LLC. The pair used another fraudulent email address to sell the property for more than $561,000, and transferred the funds to bank accounts in Mexico and Jordan.
Prosecutors said Villalobos and Montoya had a laundry list of techniques they used to dupe buyers into believing the deals were legitimate—including conducting all of their business by email, rather than in person, and forging the actual homeowners' signatures. They also opened bank accounts under names similar to those of the actual, legitimate property owners.
The pair were arrested in November at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport as they returned from a trip to Mexico.
They were originally indicted on 15 counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to launder money, and money laundering. In June, they took a plea deal, and both pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges.
“It is difficult to imagine a more brazen betrayal of trust than pretending to own someone else’s home and selling it for your own gain,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon.
Two Mexican nationals, Victor Hugo Villalobos Almazan and Nayeli Noemi Montoya Rodriguez, sold 3873 36th St., a 7,000-square-foot lot with an abandoned home on it (above), for $400,000, which was actually owned by the Mary Q. Cam trust. (Google Earth) But seller identification fraud—fraudulently posing as a property seller—is becoming more and more common. The fraud typically involves a scammer creating fake identification and contacts in order to impersonate a property's actual owners.
The fraudsters often work with legitimate real estate agents and brokers to create a property paper trail and market an available property. Once the property is sold, the funds are typically wired to an out-of-state or overseas bank acount to be laundered.
A 2024 study from the American Land Title Association found that 28% of title insurance companies experienced at least one incident of seller impersonation fraud over the previous 12 months.
A 2025 survey from the National Association of Realtors® found that these types of scams are most common in cities and urban areas. On a regional level, 92% of Realtors® in the Northeast said they were aware of a seller identification scam occuring in their area, compared with 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 tends to most commonly occurly with vacant land parcels or unoccupied homes. Scammers also often targeted unoccupied investment properties and properties with a recently deceased homeowner.
Would-be buyers can safeguard themselves against these fraudulent deals by being aware of several red flags, including using an unknown notary and demanding all-cash transactions.
The Realtors Land Institute warns against sellers asking for way-below-market-value and overly quick closes. Sellers that refuse to meet in person or on video call are also a tipoff, as are properties that have no outstanding mortgage and deals that require shuttling transactions through multiple countries.
If you believe you've been a victim of seller impersonation fraud, experts recommend filing a complaint with the police and FBI and notifying the title company.