Author Topic: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam  (Read 7102 times)

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Offline Honest Joe

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WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« on: August 15, 2012, 10:14:40 AM »
For those of you who are selling, or planing to sell, your villa or apartment be aware of a SCAM by individuals posing to be Estate Agents.

A friend recently sold her house to a viewer who, as far as she was aware had come as a result of a For Sale note on her gate, received a threatening letter (translated into perfect English) from an "agent" the same day as the sale was completed, demanding payment of 3% of the sales value for "marketing" her property. She had had no contact with this "agent" prior to the sale of her villa and this is very obvious by the fact that they addressed the letter to her as “Dear householder”.

As far as she was concerned, the buyer had come directly to see her house, viewed the house alone, and negotiated the price privately. A Turkish friend spoke to the "agent", and confirmed that the agent had had no previous contact at all with the seller, and there was absolutely no obligation to pay anything to them. The "agent" apologised stating that there had been an error in the translation!!!!

This "agent" will obviously try this scam again and again - preying on individuals who will just pay because of the threats made in the letter - so if you do receive such a threat contact the Jandarme immediately.



Offline Scunner

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2012, 10:59:50 AM »
So how did the "agent" know the property had been sold that day?

Offline desmartinson

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2012, 11:54:52 AM »
Well spotted Keith. i picked it up too.  ;)

Offline stoop

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2012, 16:11:05 PM »
So how did the "agent" know the property had been sold that day?

Maybe an informer in the Notary? It says the same day the sale was 'completed' so I assume someone will have notarised the sale?

Sounds like someone is getting backhanders to inform this 'agent' of private sales.

Offline Scunner

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2012, 18:36:48 PM »
It's pretty far fetched - someone tells an employee of the tapu/notary office to let him know when a sale goes through so he can then approach the seller (who doesn't know him at all) to say that he introduced the buyer (who doesn't know him at all) to the property and now wants commission. It's ludicrous.

If I had £10 of someone else's money I'd put it on the possibility that the agent was selling the property, perhaps it was his sign advertising it for sale, and buyer and seller tried to cut him out of the deal.  There is just no way a plan to claim to have assisted in a sale could ever work when nobody involves knows you from Adam. Unless they agree to pretend they don't. And it's happened to most of us.

Offline stoop

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2012, 22:31:56 PM »
Strange how he backed off then. Surely if he had advertised the property he would be able to provide evidence? If so then why would he just walk away from 3% commission? I know I wouldn't.

Not saying it happened but I think it's possible someone could try if they had the info needed.

Offline Jim Fraser

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2012, 23:00:43 PM »
A question to honest joe - find out from your friend which agent sent the letter, and name them - if they make such major errors in translations then I think others should be aware of how poor they are.

Offline quackers

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2012, 06:03:43 AM »
Yes ıt dıd happen. The 'Agent' backed off when threatened wıth court actıon by a legal bod. We thınk the turkısh purchaser had asked the 'Agent' to look for property for sale ın our area and she gave her thıs vıllas address to go and look at the area and vılla before makıng an approach to the owner. The agent does not work from an offıce ,she seems to just drive around  lookıng for propertıes for her 'clients'.The seller dıd not have any contact wıth the 'agent' and she was never ıntroduced to her or saw her. She thought thıs buyer has seen her For Sale sıgn and came on speck. So the fault lıes wıth the purchaser. We thınk the agent she knew the property had been sold that day via the purchaser who may have saıd I found my own property and purchased ıt today to avoıd payıng her 'agent' 3%. The Agent can easıly fınd out whıch property she had bought. The letter left was not on company headed paper just a hand wrıtten note wıth a telephone number but very threatenıng.

Offline Scunner

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2012, 09:09:08 AM »
Right - so an agent drove around, saw a property for sale, didn't enquire about it with the owner (even though she was outside it) but gave it's location to a 'client' so they could go and have a look on their own. And the "Turkish friend" in post no. 1 is now a "legal bod". Forgive my scepticism, living in Turkey made me this way  :)

Offline stoop

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Re: WARNING: "Estate Agent" scam
« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2012, 10:04:31 AM »
It reads to me that the buyer asked the agent to have a look for property in that area and she saw the one in question and passed the details to the buyer. If anyone should be paying the agent surely it should be the buyer as the agent had no contact with the seller.

Maybe she was outside the property but the seller wasn't home? It does seem strange that the agent simply passed on the details though as surely she would try and protect her commission by taking the buyer to look at the house and maybe trying to negotiate with the seller.

Or just maybe the agent never actually spotted this house and the buyer found it when looking around the area after being given details of another property. The buyer then told the agent she had found and bought a property she found herself and the agent decided to to her luck?

More to come from this story I think  :)




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