Northport Resident Warns Community Of Scam He Narrowly Avoided

Residents in West Alabama should beware of a scam going around involving real estate. A Northport business owner is drawing attention to a scam that he almost fell victim to that used the Northside community.

"Be cautious of companies or individuals who market plots of land without any intention of actually purchasing the property," Mason Bentley said in a post on Facebook, warning residents of a scam he narrowly avoided.

"This is known as a 'Land Flipping Fraud' or 'Contract Assignment Scam," where the party attempts to sell a contract for land they don’t own or never intend to close on, only to collect quick assignment fees."

Bentley spoke exclusively to Townsquare Media on how he determined this was a scam. He says it all stemmed from a bad check.

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"They sent a fake check. The check was from an Arkansas bank, the envelope said California, and the routing number indicated it was from North Carolina."

Bentley says that there were multiple signs along with the fake check that pointed to a scam, including inconsistencies with the company name and grammatical errors on their website.

After returning the payment, Bentley says the person began sending insulting emails and gave Bentley's company a one-star review on Google Reviews, negatively affecting his business.

"In the beginning, I was worried about being scammed myself, " said Bentley.

"After asking questions in multiple groups I'm in, I concluded they were trying to use my services to market land they did not own for paper lot scams."

Benley posted several tips for others in the community detailing what to watch out for with this particular scam. You can see his suggestions below.