From Fake Listings to Stolen Land. How AI Is Changing Real Estate Fraud in Rochester.

Jeremias Maneiro, associate broker at RE/MAX, joins the show to talk about one of the fastest growing threats facing Rochester renters and property owners, AI powered real estate scams, and how he accidentally became the local expert on stopping them.Jeremias walks through how rental scams have evolved from simple listing grabs to fully fabricated properties with AI generated photos and addresses, shares a jaw dropping local case where a scammer moved tenants into a vacant home for months without the owner knowing, and explains how vacant land is now being fraudulently listed and sold. He also shares the strategy he used to trace 380 fake rental accounts back to a single overseas scam operation using AI itself to find the pattern.The biggest takeaways: if a deal looks too good to be true in Rochester's low inventory market it almost certainly is, never wire money or send a deposit through Venmo or PayPal without verifying in person, and always find contact information yourself rather than trusting what someone sends you.Learn more at jmanai.com.