Tag: Solicitations

How to Recognize Scam Emails, Texts and Phone Calls

Senior citizens in particular are targets for scammers.  It’s easy to be taken in by a scam email or phone call, so here are some tips on how to recognize them.  I’m not an expert on this topic, but I’m speaking from my own experience. I have never been a victim of a scam because I’m careful. I’m sharing with you the care I take to avoid scammers.

If you do end up speaking with or exchanging emails with a scammer, remember this above all else: If it sounds too good to be true, it’s a scam.  If they ask for any personally identifying information, it’s a scam.  If they ask for money, it’s a scam. Better yet, though, it’s important to recognize the emails so you don’t open them and scammers’ phone numbers so you don’t answer them.  If they say they are from your bank, etc., hang up and call your bank.

Scam emails: The main danger with emails occurs when you open an attachment or click on a link that contains a virus.  Never click on a link or attachment you are not expecting. For attachments, look at the file name. If the suffix is “.htm” or “.html” it’s a website, not an attachment, and it will capture your information and suck you in. Word files (“.doc” or “.docx”) can also contain hidden links in them that capture your information or plant a virus on your computer. An Acrobat file (“.PDF”) might be safe, but I wouldn’t open one I’m not expecting from a trusted person. If the PDF asks you to enter something like a password or email address before opening, you know it’s a scam or virus, so don’t do it!

Look at the email address of the sender, but more importantly, float your cursor over the address to see what the sender’s real email address is, because it could be different.  That’s a red flag.  Look at the suffix on the email address. If it’s not “.com” or “.net” or “.org” or “.edu” or “.gov” it might be for a foreign country – another red flag.  If it says the attachment is a voicemail, or an invoice, or a “payment advice,” that attachment is probably a website and it’s a scam.  If you have opened an email and the whole message is one link because wherever you float the cursor you see the finger pointer instead of the arrow pointer, that’s a red flag.  Close the email and delete it! If there are links in an email, float your cursor over the link without clicking on it, and see if it’s the same. For example, the link might look legitimate, such a “microsoft.com,” but when you float over it you see some other address, perhaps ending in a country code (“.uk” or “.ru” etc.) that’s a red flag. Close and delete the message! If you do visit a website, float over any link within that website for the same reason.

Phone calls and text messages: It’s best to let unknown calls from unknown numbers go into voicemail. Usually a scammer won’t leave a voicemail, so don’t think you missed anything important.  Look at the phone number.  Never answer a call from an “unknown” number or a number from another country or a number from “United States” instead of a specific city. If you answer the phone and the person uses your legal first name instead of your nickname, and if they ask how you are today instead of just saying hello, they’re either a solicitor or a scammer. You don’t need to be polite. No need to say goodbye, just hang up. 

On text messages, use the same advice as above. Don’t click on a link. You can ignore text messages. If it’s a real person, they’ll call you if you don’t respond. Above any text message will be an icon for the sender. Touch it, then the word “Info” to learn more about who the sender may be.

I hope this has been helpful. If so, of it not, let me know!

Homeowners Complain About Over-Solicitation by Agents, Buyers and Investors

In this era of “Big Data,” there are companies which specialize in providing hungry real estate agents with the names and addresses of homeowners with high “sell scores.”

You can tell if you have a high sell score by how many solicitations you have received by letter, postcard, phone call, text message or email about selling your home.

If you bought your house in the last year or two, you have a low sell score and probably aren’t getting such solicitations, but if you’ve lived in your house a long time and are of a “certain age” that suggests you are an empty nester, you probably get a lot of solicitations, especially from investors, but also from real estate agents who purchase lists with your name, address and phone number.

And these parties don’t pay much attention to Do Not Call lists.

Licensed real estate agents can subscribe to an app called Forewarn which allows us to get your phone numbers, including cell numbers, just by entering your name and ZIP code. I have this app myself. It’s marketed to us as a safety tool to forewarn us about buyers with criminal records, judgments or liens, etc. Armed with that information, we can decline requests to show listings either because they’re not qualified financially or we suspect they might rob or assault us. To get such details on the app, we enter the phone number which appeared on Caller ID, or we search by name and city or ZIP code, if we know it.

In prospecting, it’s a “numbers game.” It only takes a small percentage of persons to “bite” to make the practice of over-soliciting everyone else worth the time and expense, so there’s little you can do to stop it. However, here’s some practical advice on reducing those solicitations by just a little.

Regarding text messages, replying with “Stop” should at least reduce follow-up texts, and if it’s a robo-text, the computer will probably reply instantly with “You’ve been unsubscribed.” That is my favorite text message to receive!

If it’s a phone solicitation, you can block the number on most cell phones.  On my iPhone,  after I hang up, I find the number under “Recents” and click on the circled “i” at the right, scroll down and click on “Block this Caller.”

Many email programs also allow you to label an email as “junk” and to block that email address. In Outlook (which I use), the “Junk” designation is at the very left of the “ribbon” at the top of my screen, to the left of the “Delete” icon.

Of course, you can’t do much about letters and cards that you receive by mail other than to ignore and recycle them.

Many real estate agents subscribe to a service which alerts them every time a listing expires on the MLS, and owners of expired listings can expect to be inundated with calls, texts, letters and even door knocks from agents asking if you still want to sell your home and promising to do a better job than your previous listing agent.  There’s no way to avoid this onslaught of solicitations. Just know that it’s coming and prepare yourself to say “no” as politely as possible to the live solicitations and to respond that way to text messages and emails.  It will only last a few days.

If, however, your listing is “withdrawn” instead of “expired” on the MLS, it’s illegal and unethical for any agent to solicit you. That’s because the definition of “withdrawn” is that your home is subject to a valid listing agreement but merely withdrawn from the MLS. Note, however, that when the expiration date of your listing agreement arrives, the MLS will automatically change your listing status from “withdrawn” to “expired,” and the onslaught of solicitations will begin the next morning.

I don’t want to end this article without assuring you that none of the agents at Golden Real Estate engage in the kinds of solicitation described above. Thanks to our form of advertising (this newspaper column), we depend on prospects contacting us rather than us soliciting you. I myself have been licensed since 2002 and don’t recall ever making a “cold call” or sending a single card or letter soliciting a listing from a homeowner.

Unfortunately, that is unusual in our industry, and I apologize for the behavior of those other real estate practitioners.