In order to provide a clear and transparent service to our users, we have compiled a list of some fraudulent practices which are common on online advertising websites.
In general, be wary when:
• You are contacted by a person offering you a large sum of money in return for you paying the transfer fees.
• A potential tenant offers to make an immediate transfer for the deposit but the amount transferred is higher than agreed. (The cheque fraud)
• An interested party, without visiting the property, either offers to pay immediately in cash or to travel to another city to complete the transaction.
The cheque fraud
A user contacts you, interested in renting your house for a few months, and wants to pay the whole amount straight away. As payment, they send you a cheque for an amount even more than what you agreed (if the stay cost €3,000, they send you a cheque for €5,000 for instance). Then they say there’s been a mistake, and that you should pay the cheque into your bank and then send them back a cheque to make up the difference.
The trick to this is that a cheque can take several days to clear, or even several weeks, and it takes time for your bank to realise it was a fake cheque or that it has bounced.
The Princess of Burkina Faso
This particular swindle is known as “The Princess of Burkina Faso” because it comes in the form of an email contact claiming to be said person. The information in the email will state that she has been exiled in Holland and wants to buy property in Spain for her holidays. It doesn’t take a genius to see that this is a potential scam because the “Princess” soon decides to buy the property immediately in cash.
The international investor
This type of scam is also called the “rip deal” and can affect both private users and real estate professionals. The first contact is through an email where a supposed international investor claims to be extremely interested in a particular property for sale and asks for more information. This first contact may come through in English, French, Spanish or another language. When you respond to their request, the investor immediately accepts all the conditions without even trying to haggle over the price.
The American soldier
This one is all about an American soldier from the Iraq war or some other recent conflict like Bosnia or Afghanistan, who managed to kill a terrorist cell and made off with their money, often up to the millions of dollars.
The soldier says he wants to use the money towards the social good, but cannot do it himself because he is in the military and an ex-combatant so he’s looking for a “good person” to help them.
Phishing and Smishing
‘Phishing’, or identity theft, is a growing problem. Basically, cybercriminals send an email or SMS (smishing) to users of a certain online service pretending to be from a well-known company (for example, a real estate agency), while it’s really just a scam. These types of emails are only sent with the intention of tricking the user into revealing their login info, personal information or bank details.
Identity theft on idealista
• By email: Occasionally, cybercriminals send emails to our users with our logo, asking them to log in to their personal area. They manage to replicate almost perfectly the idealista login page so they can get access to your idealista password and publish false listings or access information that could be useful to them. To protect yourself from this type of fraud, always make sure that any link you click on is really taking you to idealista secure webpage (which will have a padlock symbol near the web address)
• By telephone: At some moment, someone may contact you by phone asking you for the SMS code that idealista has sent you. This happens when the cybercriminals try to use your phone number to publish a false listing. If you are not posting a listing on the website and you do receive an SMS code from idealista, contact us.