Dodgy telephone call from a potential purchaser?

alyth

hi - my house is on the market, both with an estate agent and through a couple of private house selling websites. I've just had a really weird telephone call from a guy who said his wife found the house on the Little House Company website, he's a property developer and wants to buy the house to rent it out. He's given me a really dodgy phone number, he said he was calling from Italy, it sounded as though he was in a cafe or something, he wants me to email him the details and was desperately trying to find out when he could call me again to speak to me. Now, I didn't put my house on that website, my telephone number is ex-directory, and he freaked me out and asked me my name which stupidly I gave him. He said his name was Kresbach. Has anyone had any experience of this type of thing? I've checked the websites I did put the house on and my telephone number's not shown, and I'm starting to really panic now! Anyone come across this before?

raymond

Did you put your phone number on any website ?

You want to sell, he wants to buy so whats up ??

Gambler

sounds dodgy to me

jamie304

If you speak to him again, you could insist he does everything via your agent, who should be in a better position to find out if he is serious or not.

tifnstav

That would creep me out! I'm trying to think how he got your number, racking my brains!
I wouldn't sell to him!

SammyD_2

Hmmm, I was seriously considering doing the private sale route, but now I am thinking it might be too scary without having an estate agent vet people first...

Your experience does sound a bit strange...I would avoid giving any more details unless he comes across as genuine.

alyth

I didn't forward the house details to him, it's just all too strange, however, and I should have done this ages ago, when you put your house on the private websites some of them also put the details on aggregate websites, so I'm also on Fish4 and lycos property! I'm just going to ignore the call and forget about it, we'd had enough interest without him! God knows where he got the phone number from, and I really doubt whether he'll call again.

Unfortunately though estate agents don't really vet your viewers, and the last two Sundays we've had people just turning up without appointments! And of course the proverbial no-shows! Still, ever onwards in selling the house... thanks for your replies.

Booked_moss

Tried googling your phone number (in " " marks) to see if its been put anywhere online without your permission?

alyth

Yup, it's been put on homesforsale website without my permission, fantastic, thanks for telling how to check that! Right, it's coming off their website today!

Gambler

alyth wrote:

and the last two Sundays we've had people just turning up without appointments! .

I hope you told them where to go !

courtjester

This is a money laundering approach.

Kresbach and Braun are the names to watch for, Germans working out of Italy. Calls may be received /made from mobile phones with prefix 0039 (Italy). The following email addresses may be given, both likely to be 'over-quota (not receiving mail):

kresbach@fsmail.net
john.braun@fsmail.net

Suggestion after a stream of calls expressing interest will be to travel to Italy to 'discuss with lawyers' and possibly take a cash deposit. No interest will be given in actually arranging a viewing of the property as they are making an 'investment opportunity.

Basically, all classic signs of attempt at money laundering (proceeds of crime).

Just ignore the calls /delete any emails and advise that all transactions will be handled strictly via your solicitors to who you can refer them - they will then disappear as they are only interested in finding idiots tempted by a cash incentive to commit a crime.

More information at SOCA - The Serious Organised Crime Agency (government body set up in April 2006 to consolidate investigation of finance-related crimes such as money laundering from Inland Revenue and Fraud Office).
http://www.soca.gov.uk/

If you want you can report them to SOCA, but the forms there are probably more intended for solicitors to use for compulsory reporting of fraudulent activity - the reason you must ensure any financial transactions go through your legal advisors to protect you. They do have a helpline you can call if you are concerned, but like most scams (including the old Nigerian 419) the trick here is not to be drawn into communication - just ignore /delete.

It's a fact of life when advertising anything that you might get approached by scammers, but common sense tells you when something is too good to be true providing you don't let yourself be lead by greed. Using private sale websites doesn't particularly expose you to any more risk of being approached, although don't run away with the idea that an estate agent will 'vet' buyers beforehand - they don't. All agents do is try to discover the buyer's mortgage situation and sell them a mortgage - that is not security 'vetting', which simply doesn't happen.