Recently propertyadguru.com brought agents’ attention to a phone scam we’d been told about by niche Spanish property portal kyero.com. It involved scammers sending lead enquiries to portals, which encouraged real estate agents to make expensive premium rate calls to unrelated overseas numbers.
This time it’s Rightmove Overseas who has issued a scam warning to overseas sellers. Rightmove Overseas is part of the UK’s leading property website, rightmove.co.uk, and advertises thousands of properties in over 90 countries around the world, generating over 1 million searches a month for advertisers. It was awarded Best Online Platform by OPP, the trade magazine for the industry last November.
Rightmove Overseas has warned consumers to be wary of companies offering to buy foreign properties and claiming to be associated with the company.
Robin Wilson, Head of Overseas at Rightmove explains:
“We gather that certain companies are contacting vendors, usually via another website they are advertising on. They imply they are commercially associated with Rightmove and tell the vendor that they represent large investors who can make an offer on the property. They explain that they already have the funds available to purchase the property outright, but the vendor must pay a security bond, typically 1% of the property value, in order to release a 10% deposit.
This sounds like the age-old maxim of, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is and these schemes are nothing to do with us.”
Rightmove Overseas say that they deal directly with property advertisers and have no relationships with companies that purchase property from vendors. The only companies Rightmove do have relationships with are holidaylettings.co.uk who are part of the Rightmove Group and The Rightmove Abroad who are officially licensed to introduce projects meeting minimum quality standards to subscribers. Neither company would ever offer to buy property.
Wilson continues: “Scams in the overseas market have been around for a while, but what’s really disturbing in these recent cases, is that the Rightmove Overseas brand is apparently being used to imply credibility, through claims of an acquisition or partnership.
Rightmove Overseas only markets properties for sale from our advertisers. We don’t get involved in any transactions with companies offering to buy overseas properties and are categorically not engaged with, intending to acquire or looking to partner with anyone operating like this.”
Rightmove Overseas urges vendors to be aware of potential scams and suggests that anyone who receives a communication from parties claiming to be affiliated with Rightmove should check that emails come from an address that ends in ‘@Rightmove.co.uk’. If consumers are in any way suspicious, they can email the Overseas team: ‘[email protected]’.
Wilson adds, “Buying and selling abroad isn’t risky as long as you don’t leave your common sense behind at the airport. You should only deal with reputable companies. The fast-growing Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP) was set up to help consumers avoid this kind of dubious practice and maintains a membership of companies that commit to a voluntary code of conduct. You can search their membership database online via aipp.org.uk.”
Related posts:
Loading ...
