Swiss investment

[Silinman]

Our former old vicarage is currently on the market, and I placed an ad in the Selling section here on PP some weeks ago. Today I received an email from a person claiming to represent a Swiss investment company. I then rang him as requested, and was asked a number of quesitons about me, the house the area etc.

I would just be interested to know if anyone else on PP with a house advertised on the site has been approached in a similar manner, and if so can they provide any further information about this company or their activities?

 

[skier-hughes]

I don't want to worry you, but I hope you didn't give out any personal details... A lot of electronic scams start from this sort of introduction.

 

[middi]

.........or trying to figure out a way as to how to rob your house.

:roll:

 

[MdB]

A common scam goes like this:

You advertise something(*) for X amount.

Conman offers you X + 10% with the deal being that he will send you a cheque for this amount and you refund him the 10% in cash.

You agree, conman sends you a cheque.

You pay in cheque and being clever you wait for the cheque to clear.

Cheque clears, money is in your account, you pay conman 10%. You may also send conman goods if appropriate.

Cheque then bounces. Bank then removes money from your account.

You go !?!#!!?$$! to bank. Bank says read terms and conditions which says money arriving in your account does not mean cheque has cleared.

You lose. Conman wins.

(*) Something could be anything really, the conman is looking for the 10% not the goods in question. A friend who had a holiday home had someone trying this on through trying to rent the place for a month. Conman didn't win in this case

 

[Silinman]

Interesting train of thought MdB - we run a B&B at our old vic so we are aware of this scam already, but I wouldn't have thought anyone would try it on with a house sale! Let's see if this guy gets back to me.

 

[skier-hughes]

They do it with all sorts of stuff.

My friends have been contacted with this sort of scam about wedding videos!!!!

Graham

 

[BMcD]

Silinman wrote:

I then rang him as requested, and was asked a number of quesitons about me, the house the area etc.

I'm not suggesting you rush into a deal with anybody but if I were looking to invest in a nice little B+B as a place for my self or on behalf of my company, I'm sure I'd ask all sorts of questions; about why you're selling, what sort of business you're doing, what condition the property's in, what the area's like, the type of clientèle one would expect to attract etc. etc.
Certainly proceed with caution but avoid being cagey as this might put off genuine buyers