The owner or advertiser asks you to make payment via another website
After you have contacted an advertiser for information about a property, they ask you to pay the deposit or some sort of collateral using a separate website. They usually mention the names of some well-known websites which have a payment gateway claiming they’re very safe (eg. Airbnb). The cybercriminals can create a fake web page to confuse potential customers because they are so similar to the real page. The property is false, and when you make the transfer, you will lose the money and won’t be able to get it back. Remember, never transfer money on other websites and always be sure to visit the property in person.
The owner or advertiser cannot show you the property but asks for money upfront
This type of scam is commonly used on all classified web pages all over the world. In Spain, this kind of listings are often published in the main capital cities.
They are usually properties with unbelievably good features and price, with excellent quality photos, although nowadays they are increasingly normal-looking properties with normal features so as not to arouse suspicion.
In most cases, the advertiser will prefer to be contacted by email and if they do provide a phone number, will often not pick up when you call. For this reason, it’s very important that you speak with the advertiser on the phone at some point and, of course, never send them any money until you have visited the property yourself first.
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.