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A real estate scam

By Maureen McCabe

Real Estate Agent with HER Realtors

July 08, 2009 03:37 AM

Life Cereal by Jon Aquino

Have you been Lizzed? Or is it Lized? Michael in Raleigh NC said he was "Lized."

I was Lizzed last night.

Charles blogged about hearing from Liz on his Charlottesville blog - is this a real estate scam? you have been warned...

Liz Casey was looking for real estate in Virginia less than a week ago...Liz wanted Charles to dial +882 135 502 99

Liz is everywhere....

I recognize Mary Pope Handy...in California... Liz emailed Mary the same day she contacted me... about a listing in Ohio.

Liz emailed agents in ME, TN, OR, RI, Canada... MI, you name the state or province and it seems Liz needs to see your listing.

It looks like Charles found a post saying someone in the real estate business heard from Liz back in 2007.

"I am interested in viewing one of your properties, could you please call me on my foreign mobile..."

Anyone have a clue what the point of the scam is? The email she used in the email she sent me is from a Zapak.com email address. Zapak.com is gaming out of India which has a free beta email available. 882 is a catch all International country code.

How does that old Life Cereal commercial go?

"Let Mikey try it..."

"he hates everything..."

"Hey he likes it...."

Alas Michael in NC is NOT Mikey. Michael would not try it. Michael also commented:

"I was suprised to find this blog and so many people posting. It does make me very curious as to what this person is up to. However, not curious enough to call that number."

The email I received had a slightly different phone number than the one in Charles post...

+882 135 504 90 someone else posted the same number as the one Elizabeth used in her email to me in their comment so Google still sent me to Charles' post

Liz Casey's real estate scam email

Before anyone is curious enough to try any of Liz's number.... Tom Larson another commenter on Charles post wrote:

"Phone companies pay for ‘termination fees’ so if you call that number, you get charged an astronomical rate, and good ol liz gets a cut of it, for generating those calls to that number, which appears by the way to be a int code not assigned to any country, so could be a sat phone..with even higher charges."

and someone with an attorneys office commented:

"Before I found this message, I returned the call to Liz. A woman answered and CNN was playing loudly in the background. Every minute or so, the woman yelled, “Liz, there’s a call from you.” and “Liz, are you coming?” I hung up after 8 minutes and it will be interesting to see what my charge is."

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Life Cereal photo is from Jon Aquino's Flickr photostream and is shared with a Creative Commons License.

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Lisa Bosques

Burien, WA

Thank you so much for posting this!!!! I got the exact same message on my e-mail today and my first thought was, "How very rude of her to expect me to just jump up and dial an international number without her even telling me which listing of mine she wants to see...my number's at the bottom of my e-mail, so she can just call ME!".

I did send an e-mail asking her to clarify which listing it was. I was feeling guilty for not calling her and then I jumped on here to check it out - thank Goodness I did!

Jul 09, 2009 12:01 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Rob She is everywhere

M. Lee thanks I saw someone else on Charles McDonald's WordPress blog that heard from her that was in N. Michigan too. I want to say the Travis City area?

Lisa... I did not email her but either Charles or someone in the comments on his post did.

I tried to text to the number... I looked up to see if I could text to a foreign mobile phone and it said "maybe"

Jul 09, 2009 10:38 PM

Anonymous

Luke Sparks

I am a realtor in Lake City FL and just got this e-mail. I wonder what the point is?

Luke Sparks

www.LukeSparks.com

Hi there,

I am interested in viewing one of your properties while visiting family here, could you please call me on my overseas mobile +882 135 504 91 to setup a time. As I am travelling and unable to pickup emails regularly so please call.

Kind regards,

Elizabeth Casey

---------

Mobile: +882 135 504 91

Anyone know what this is about?

Luke Sparks

Jul 10, 2009 02:55 AM

#30

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

don't call the number Luke. The point is a lot of money charged to your phone bill. How Liz gets her cut is unknown read the last paragraph:

" someone with an attorneys office commented:

thanks for stopping by ActiveRain. You should join ActiveRain.

No one else add a link, please. Luke obviously does not know better than to add a link to his website in a comment.

Jul 10, 2009 04:00 AM

Anonymous

Margarette Gatchell, Associate Broker

I got an email today and sent a warning to my office.

Jul 10, 2009 05:24 AM

#32

Marg Scheben

RE/MAX four seasons realty limited - Collingwood, ON

Edey - Collingwood, Ontario

I just got "Lizzed" here in Ontario, Canada too. I'm sending a note to our real estate board to hopefully send out a warning to local agents. Glad I "googled" the number and glad you started this thread. Thanks!

Jul 10, 2009 05:39 AM

Anonymous

christine smith

Thanks Marg, just got the notice from our Board office.. Great to be informed.

Jul 10, 2009 10:37 AM

#34

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

It's amazing. It's a full time business. I wonder if it is a team of people and what the ROI is, ;- )

Jul 10, 2009 10:48 PM

Anonymous

Teri Gilmore

My business partner was "Lizzed" this morning - same message. I googled the number - use google a lot - and got this stream and others. Glad to get the "heads up." Thanks!

Jul 12, 2009 06:11 AM

#36

Anonymous

Kathy in Traverse City, MI

Just got Lizzed!!! Glad I didn't call the number. The email looked so convincing, but clients usually tell me WHAT property they're interested in seeing!

Jul 12, 2009 11:17 AM

#37

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Thanks Teri and Kathy I guess personalizing the scam with an address would be costly. It must work with a small percentage.

Jul 12, 2009 10:49 PM

Jim Norbuta

RE/MAX Traditions (Cleveland, Ohio) - Chagrin Falls, OH

Maureen,

Thanks for the heads up...if only people would put their creativity to honest, meaningful work.

Many Blessings,

Jim

Jul 13, 2009 12:38 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Thanks Jim, it seems most of us are smarter than Liz thinks we are.

Jul 13, 2009 10:30 PM

Jim Hirschhorn

Real Living Real Estate Solutions - Orlando, FL

GRI, Real Living - Orlando

Maureen, you may be the savior of real estate agents everywhere!

In a related topic, I received an email from United Airlines advertising their frequent flyer program. There were links all over the email and when you held your mouse over the links, they all pointed to the same place. I got one a few years ago from Bank of America and it was the same thing. If you click on these links, you could get a Trojan Horse virus where they plant things on your computer and can hack in without you knowing. Bottom line, always go directly to a website yourself and check all links by holding your mouse over them before clicking!

Jul 14, 2009 08:09 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

"you may be the savior of real estate agents everywhere!"

oh pshaw..

It sounds just "off" enough that I think most people think it is a scam because it does not ID a property, so they look for Liz Casey on Google or her email or her phone. The phone numbers is what Google is picking up, someone on Charles' post had a long list of numbers that have been used.

I got a Trojan once and my computer kept going in a loop to German websites or Russian websites (I thought it was one, person who cleaned up my machine thought it was the other) the sites were ads and they got paid for each time my computer and all the other computers "clicked" on the ad. I can't remember how I got it but it probably came in an email. Even after that I don't necessarily think to hover over links all the time. I did not learn.

Jul 14, 2009 09:52 AM

Andrew Haslett

Van Warren Home Inspections, NAHI CRI - Fort Knox, KY

Heartland of Kentuckynulls, Best Home Inspector

Well, Liz hasn't been contacting any home inspectors to my knowledge. She can't be too serious if she doesn't want to schedule a home inspection. Maybe I should call her to see what's up :-)

Oct 21, 2009 04:19 PM

Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL

Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL

Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Interesting. I came here from you today's blog. Missed it back then in July. The thhing that makes me angry is that these things are traceable. The numbers are still traceable, and I think these perpetrators can and shoudl be caught and punished

Oct 21, 2009 04:39 PM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Andrew this is a serious issue of fraud against real estate licensees across the country.

Jon I wonder if it is it not pursued because it is international. ?

Oct 21, 2009 11:40 PM

David Cahill

Century 21 Cahill Associates - Boston, MA

Wow, I used to work with a Liz Casey in our Century 21 office. Could not be the same person, though. She does not have the smarts or the gonads to pull something like this off...

Feb 03, 2010 10:14 AM

Maureen McCabe

HER Realtors - Columbus, OH

Columbus Ohio Real Estate

No this is not someone in the US David. I think I know a Liz Casey...

Feb 03, 2010 10:19 AM

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