Real estate agent cheat: private buyer trick

Yesterday I found this piece of paper in my letter box:

It was an A6-size photocopy of a hand-written note. Despite the fact that any person who is going to buy a house is usually be able to afford a computer and a printer to type the note, the author of this scam chose to distribute copies of a handwritten note, because he/she knew that a printed note is much more likely to be thrown away with the rest of junk mail without being read. Handwriting is a rare occurrence these days, and thus attracts more attention than anything printed. The hand-made appearance also adds an impression of the affair being truly private and genuine.

As a curious person who loves to study life and hates dirty tricks, I simply entered the phone number into the Google search and got the following result:

Turns out, the “private cash buyer” is in fact a real estate agent. The piece of paper was just another trick in order to obtain personal details of potential sellers.

Stay vigilant, be aware of tricks before they are applied to you, at the very least make use of the Internet search and online reviews. Other real agents can be smarter that this and use “uncompromised” contact details, but the more avenues or research you take the better you protect yourself.