Property Fraud Online: Duties of Real Estate Agents

By Advocate Panchanand Shaw, Bar Council of West Bengal · Published 4 Nov 2026 · Online fraud

Online property fraud usually runs through an agent the buyer trusted. An agent's own conduct is governed by the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, while deception, impersonation and forged title documents are answered by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Information Technology Act, 2000, with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 covering the service.

Online property fraud in India almost always runs through a person the buyer trusted: a broker, an agent, a self-styled channel partner, or a property consultant found on a classifieds site or a social media group. The script repeats. A fake owner appears, a forged title deed is shown, a token advance is paid by UPI or bank transfer, and then the phone goes dead. The law answers this on two levels. The individual conduct - deception, impersonation, forged documents - is covered by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Information Technology Act, 2000. The agent's conduct as an agent - whether registered, whether entitled to act, whether honest about what he knew - is covered by the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 and, where the transaction is a service to a consumer, by the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

That distinction decides which forum hears the complaint, what evidence is relevant, and whether the agent is a witness or an accused. This guide sets out what an agent is legally required to do, what happens when an agent facilitates fraud, and the complaint route for a buyer or a seller who has lost money.

What RERA requires of a real estate agent

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 treats a real estate agent as a regulated professional, not a freelance introducer. Section 9 of the Act says that no real estate agent shall facilitate the sale or purchase of, or act on behalf of any person to facilitate the sale or purchase of, any plot, apartment or building in a real estate project registered under section 3, without obtaining registration. Section 10 then lists the functions of a registered agent. Read together, the duties are clear even if a particular agent ignores them.

Registration before acting

An agent must apply to the State authority for registration, and once registered must quote the registration number in every sale he facilitates. Registration is granted for the whole State or Union territory and is renewable. In West Bengal, an agent facilitating sales in a registered project must therefore be able to produce a registration number - an agent who cannot is working outside the statute.

The duty not to facilitate unregistered projects

Section 10(a) prohibits a registered agent from facilitating the sale or purchase of any plot, apartment or building in a project that is not registered with the authority. An agent who markets an unregistered project is not merely careless; he is in breach of a statutory duty, and the authority can act against him.

The duty to avoid unfair trade practices

Section 10(c) prohibits an agent from engaging in unfair trade practices. The Act spells out what that means: falsely representing that his services are of a particular standard or grade, claiming an approval or affiliation with a promoter that he does not have, making a false or misleading representation about his services, and permitting the advertisement of services that are not intended to be offered. In a market where brokers advertise "verified" and "RERA approved" listings online, these prohibitions are directly relevant.

Books, records and documentation

A registered agent must maintain and preserve the books of account, records and documents prescribed under the rules, and must facilitate the possession of all information and documents to which the buyer is entitled at the time of booking. That duty to hand over documents matters enormously in a fraud case, because it is where the agent's failure to verify the title becomes visible.

When an agent crosses the line into crime

RERA regulates conduct; it does not punish deception. Where an agent or a person posing as one acts dishonestly, the criminal law takes over. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 provides the main provisions.

Conduct	Provision	Why it applies
Collecting a token advance on a property that does not exist or is not for sale	BNS 318	Cheating by deception causing wrongful loss
Pretending to be the owner, or an authorised agent of the owner	BNS 319	Cheating by personation
Handling the buyer's money and misappropriating it	BNS 316	Criminal breach of trust
Showing or creating a forged title deed, power of attorney or NOC	BNS 336, 338, 340	Forgery; forged valuable security; using a forged document as genuine
Fake property listing, bogus identity documents online	IT Act 66C, 66D	Identity theft; cheating by personation using a computer resource
Shared or stolen login credentials used to create listings	IT Act 43, 66	Unauthorised access and computer-related offences

Two points of law are frequently confused. First, a forged sale deed or power of attorney is not merely a bad document; producing or using it can attract both the forgery provisions and the cheating provisions together. Second, the platform on which the fake listing appeared is not automatically liable - a classifieds site may claim the safe harbour under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000, and whether that defence holds depends on whether it met the due-diligence duties in the IT Rules, 2021. The agent, or the person pretending to be one, remains the primary target.

How to complain: the order that works

Stop paying and preserve the money trail. Note the UPI reference, NEFT details, bank account numbers and the beneficiary name. Report a fraudulent electronic transaction to the bank's nodal officer immediately and, for financial cyber fraud, to the 1930 helpline or the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
Collect the documents you were shown. Photograph the title deed, the power of attorney, the NOC and the agent's identification and visiting card. Do this before you confront anyone, because documents tend to disappear.
Check registration. Search the State RERA register for the agent and for the project. If the project is not registered or the agent is not, that finding itself is a breach of section 9 or section 10 of the RERA Act, 2016 and should be recorded.
Give a written police complaint. Information about a cognizable offence must be recorded under section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Attach the chronology, the documents and the payment records. If registration is refused, escalate to the Superintendent of Police and then to the Magistrate under section 175 of the BNSS.
File a RERA complaint where the project is covered. A breach by a registered agent can be taken to the State's real estate regulatory authority, which can act against the registration. This runs parallel to the criminal complaint.
Consider a consumer complaint. Where the agent's service was supplied to a consumer for consideration, a complaint under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 for unfair trade practice or deficient service is available before the District, State or National Commission depending on value.

Where money was moved by UPI or bank transfer, the RBI directions on unauthorised electronic transactions give a separate recovery route, and an unresolved complaint can go to the RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. That recovery track should run beside the criminal case, not after it.

Evidence that decides a property fraud case

In this kind of fraud, the documentary trail is the case. What matters is:

The payment record - the UPI or bank reference, the account to which it went, and any receipt or token-advance document signed by the agent.
The documents shown at the meeting, and evidence of who produced them.
The listing itself: the platform, the date, the seller's identity details, and any chats or calls that followed.
Registration status - the entry, or its absence, in the RERA register.
Certification of electronic records, because a printout of a chat or a listing must satisfy section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, including the certificate under section 63(4) where it is produced as secondary evidence.

What decides the outcome

Three questions usually decide whether a property fraud complaint succeeds. Was there deception, or merely a bad bargain? A failed transaction with an honest but careless agent is a civil and regulatory matter, not cheating; the criminal case needs the element of dishonest inducement. Did money actually move, and can it be traced? Prosecutions and recovery both turn on the money trail. And was the agent acting within the scope of his engagement, or was he outside it? An agent who was himself deceived by a fake owner occupies a very different legal position from one who created the fake documents, and courts look closely at that distinction rather than treating every agent in a failed deal as a fraudster.

Where the law is unsettled

The scope of RERA deserves an honest note. The registration duty in section 9 of the Act, 2016 is tied to real estate projects registered under section 3, and agents also work outside that registered-project world - in resale of individual flats, in plots on unapproved layouts, and in transactions that fall outside the statute's reach. In those cases the RERA remedy may not be available, and the buyer is left with the criminal law, the consumer forum and a civil suit for recovery. Whether a particular agent's conduct falls within RERA is therefore a question to be checked on the facts, not assumed.

One further factor is often decisive at the complaint stage: whom the buyer chose to trust, and how. Where the buyer dealt only with an anonymous online listing and never verified who the seller actually was, investigators will ask why the identity was never checked. That does not excuse the fraudster, whose deception remains the offence, but it shapes how quickly the complaint moves and what the bank may argue about the buyer's own conduct when a recovery claim is made under the RBI framework.

Common mistakes

Paying a token advance in cash with no receipt, which destroys the money trail that both the police and the bank need.
Confronting the agent before preserving the documents, letting the forged papers vanish.
Treating the platform's listing as proof of ownership. A listing is an advertisement, not a title.
Filing only a consumer complaint where the facts show deliberate deception, leaving the fraudster uninvestigated.
Delaying the bank intimation. Prompt reporting is what supports a claim under the RBI framework on unauthorised electronic transactions.

When to involve a lawyer

For a small token advance lost to a bogus listing, a police complaint and a bank intimation may be enough. Instruct a lawyer when a substantial sum has moved, when documents appear forged, when the agent is registered and a RERA action is possible, or when you need the money recovered as well as the offender prosecuted. The lawyer's task is to fix the correct forum and the correct sections, to move the RERA, criminal and recovery tracks together, and to handle the electronic-evidence certification that so often decides such cases. Our West Bengal cyber crime lawyers handle property-fraud complaints in Kolkata and the districts, and related defence work is set out under criminal defence.

In property fraud, the listing proves nothing and the title proves everything. Verify the deed and the RERA registration before the first rupee leaves your account.

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Frequently asked questions

Are real estate agents required to register under RERA?

Yes, where they facilitate a sale or purchase in a real estate project registered under the Act. Section 9 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 prohibits an agent from facilitating such a transaction without registration, and the registration number must be quoted in every sale he facilitates. Transaction work outside registered projects falls on a different footing.

What are the duties of a registered real estate agent in India?

Section 10 of the RERA Act, 2016 lists them: not to facilitate an unregistered project, to maintain the prescribed books and records, not to engage in unfair trade practices such as false representations about approvals, and to give the buyer all information and documents to which the buyer is entitled at the time of booking.

Which sections apply when a property agent cheats a buyer online?

Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 covers cheating, section 319 covers cheating by personation where the agent poses as the owner, and section 316 covers criminal breach of trust where money is mishandled. Forged deeds or powers of attorney attract sections 336, 338 and 340 of the BNS, with the IT Act sections 66C and 66D applying online.

Is an online classifieds site liable for a fake property listing?

Not automatically. A platform may claim the intermediary safe harbour under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000, but that protection depends on whether it complied with the due-diligence duties in the IT Rules, 2021. The primary target in a fake-listing fraud is the agent or the person posing as one, not the website that carried the advertisement.

How do I file a complaint against a fraudulent property agent?

Preserve the payment records and the documents you were shown, report the transaction to your bank's nodal officer and the 1930 helpline, then give a written police complaint that must be recorded under section 173 of the BNSS, 2023. Where the project is registered, also file a complaint with the State RERA authority against the agent.

Can I recover money paid to a fake property seller?

Recovery runs on a separate track from punishment. Bank and UPI payments may be pursued under the RBI directions on unauthorised electronic transactions and the RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, while a civil suit for recovery or a consumer complaint may follow where the agent's service was deficient. Acting quickly matters, because traced funds are far easier to attach.

What documents must an agent hand over at the time of booking?

Section 10 of the RERA Act, 2016 requires a registered agent to facilitate the possession of all information and documents to which the allottee is entitled at the time of booking. In practice this includes the project details, the title-related disclosures and booking documents. An agent's failure to provide them is itself evidence of a breach of duty.

Does a token advance paid by UPI help or harm a property fraud case?

It helps, provided the payment is recorded. A UPI or bank transfer creates a traceable money trail showing the amount, the date and the beneficiary account, which the police and the bank both need. Cash paid without a receipt destroys that trail. Preserve the transaction reference and any receipt the agent signed.

Information for general guidance only and not legal advice. Provisions cited follow the Information Technology Act 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.

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