Criminals advertise cheap rental and condominiums, houses and properties on well-known real estate platforms.
Consumers are informed that a viewing is carried out through a trust company, i.e. a trustworthy intermediary. Deposits may not be paid and identification documents may not be submitted. Money and data end up with criminals.
If you are currently looking for an apartment, be careful. Criminals often advertise cheap dream apartments in good locations in order to attract as many people as possible. If you come across one of the advertisements and contact the landlord or seller, you will be informed that arranging a viewing appointment and possible further steps will be handled by an escrow company. One of these trust companies, which is also intended to be its own real estate platform, is on-vista.com:
The properties found on this platform do not exist or are not even available for sale or rent at the prices stated. The images and information are fictitious or were stolen from real advertisements.
How do the criminals operate?
Disguised as supposedly trustworthy intermediaries, the criminals send you messages like the following, informing you of what to do next:
Dear Mrs. Musterfrau,
I am Monika Jacobs, a real estate agent with an international activity for the On Vista Real Estate company.
I am in charge of managing the purchase agreement of the property located in Musterstraße 20, District 8213, Austria, owned by Mrs. Renou Alexia. The selling price of the property has been set at € 213,000.00.It is still available, and this is the identification number in order to check its availability on our official website: P4700990298
The property can be reserved in your name for a private visit; you further have the step-by-step description of the manner of scheduling a visit:
* In order to start the procedure, we will need the following details from you:
# Your complete name:
# Complete address:
# Telephone number:
# Fax number (if available):* The next step is filling in a pre-contract for setting the private visit. I would mention that this contract shall not bind you by any means to purchase the property, only the terms of the transaction are specified in this document.
* You, as a potential purchaser, shall receive a notification containing a transaction identification number which shall give you access to the private area of the clients on our website.
* In your private area, you shall have access to all the details of your transaction, as well as the pre-contract signed and stamped by us.
* At this point, you, as potential purchaser, with an exclusive purchasing right, shall have to constitute an earnest money deposit at our agency, within a maximum of 72 hours from generating the contract.
The payment must be made by bank transfer to one of the agency's trust accounts. The total value of the earned money deposit has been set to 2.5% of the total purchasing price, ie € 5,325.00.
Please note that the earned money deposit is a deposit meant to prove your interest in purchasing the property, and should not be mistaken for a down payment for purchasing the property. * After initiating the transfer, you shall have to send the scanned document from the bank to our agency, together with the contract signed by you.* After your payment is confirmed in one of our bank accounts (it usually does not exceed 2 working days), the visit shall be set, and I, as an agent in charge of your transaction, shall be delegated to organize the visit. I mention that I shall be accompanied by a legal representative of the owner. During the private visit, you can check all the property-related aspects, including the accompanying legal documents.
After visiting the property, there shall be 2 possible situations:
1) In case you decide not to purchase the property, the earned money deposit shall be refunded into your bank account on the same day you visit the property.
In this case, the pre-contract shall become null&void. All fees for our services are entirely paid for by the owner. 2) If you decide to buy the property, all the documents shall be signed in the presence of a local notary, and we shall authorize the release of the earned money deposit to the owner, as a down payment for purchasing the property. They shall also set a certain deadline within which you shall have to pay for the rest of the amount in order to cover the entire price of the property. In this case, you will pay the notary fees; the fees for our services are completely paid for by the landlord who has hired us.Thank you for your understanding.
Please send me the requested details only if all the aspects above are completely understood. Best regards, Monika Jacobs, International Real Estate Agent
In summary, you should provide personal data such as name, address and telephone number and transfer a large deposit amount, in this case over 5,000 euros, just to arrange a viewing appointment. The safety of this procedure is pointed out several times. If you subsequently take over the apartment, the money will be passed on to the owners. If you don't take the apartment, the money will supposedly be credited back to your account immediately.
In some cases you will also be asked for copies of your ID to confirm your identity.
What happens next?
When you submit your identification documents, they end up in the hands of criminals who can use them to commit further crimes under the cover of your identity.
The main goal is to transfer the deposit. If you comply with the requests to arrange a viewing appointment and transfer the requested amounts, you will lose your money. The expected viewing date never comes, let alone a rental or purchase agreement. Getting the money back is almost impossible.
How do you protect yourself from this scam?
To avoid falling into such traps, there are a few points to keep in mind:
- The more tempting an offer seems, the more skeptical you should be about it. Criminals often try to attract more interested parties with unbelievable prices.
- Avoid offers that require you to pay deposits or submit identification documents before viewing the property. Such an approach is highly unusual in the industry. Deposits may only be paid after a viewing.
- If you notice any discrepancies, break off contact. For example, if the alleged owners claim to be abroad and to handle everything through alleged trust companies, this is highly dubious.
Have you submitted or paid for ID cards?
Contact your bank immediately and ask whether it is still possible to get the money back. However, the chances of this happening are very low.
Also, file a police report. Describe to your counterpart exactly what happened. Report any loss of money or data theft to the police. This way the authorities will know if crimes are carried out in your name.
Source: Watchlist Internet
Notes:
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