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Scam alert - Did you get this today too?

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Marte Cliff Copywriting

Scammers really should check their lists before they send their mail.

If they're sending it to people who can't possibly have a real estate listing, it's ascam lie. That means there HAS to be some ulterior motive for sending it.

That makes it scary to me, and my bet is that hundreds of real estate agents got this same message. If I was still an agent, I just might have fallen for it.

Here's what it said:

 

Your real estate listing was featured in today's News Digest International (www.newsdigest.co).

 

We look forward to hearing from you again in the future!

 

Sincerely,

 

Lisa Davis
News Digest International

Since I haven't held a real estate license now for about 7 years...

I definitely didn't click to see where it would take me and my efforts to "look behind" the address to see the actual link were not successful. (Did I mention, I'm no techie. I was afraid to "copy link location" for fear I'd end up somewhere dangerous.)

Comments(64)

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Pamela Seley
West Coast Realty Division - Murrieta, CA
Residential Real Estate Agent serving SW RivCo CA

Marte, with the internet scammers are able to scrape email addresses and use them for marketing. I literally get hundreds of scam emails each day [not kidding].

Aug 09, 2012 06:58 AM
Renee Hearne
Crye-Leike Realtors - Maumelle, AR
Realtor, CRA, CPPS, MMDP

Thanks for the heads up regarding this scam that is going around.

Aug 09, 2012 06:59 AM
Ralph Janisch ABR CRS Broker
Janisch & Co. - Conroe, TX
Selling Northwest Houston to good people like you!

I've received 2 or 3 of these within the last week.  Sort of like the ones that tell you that you've been included in the who's who in America.  Same kind of tripe.

Aug 09, 2012 07:06 AM
Lenn Harley
Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Homes and Real Estate - Leesburg, VA
Real Estate Broker - Virginia & Maryland

I believe I got that one too.

They are probably scraping AR.

Aug 09, 2012 07:18 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Pamela - It's big business, so a percentage of the population must be responding.

Renee' - it seemed worth mentioning, just in case it is dangerous. If you had a lot of listings out there, you just might fall for it.

Jeanne and Ralph - Yes, I get those whose who things quite often too. I just figure that's a bid to pay money to be included in some hyped up directory.

Aug 09, 2012 07:23 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Lenn - Maybe so. In that case, they're hopefully targetting people who are too smart to fall for it!

Aug 09, 2012 07:37 AM
John Pusa
Glendale, CA

Marte - Thanks for the warning. I don't think, I received such email, but I do receive emails could be scams. We need to be very careful.

Aug 09, 2012 08:18 AM
Barbara Todaro
RE/MAX Executive Realty - Happily Retired - Franklin, MA
Previously Affiliated with The Todaro Team

Hi Marte..... the past few weeks have been overkill with scam emails..... overkill.

Aug 09, 2012 09:05 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

John - Yes we do. Some could merely be scams to get us to buy something. Others could be dangerous. I just got a message "from" a client that I KNOW she didn't send. Was it because she clicked through to a wrong message?

Barbara - Too many people desperate because they've lost their jobs - so trying anything to make a buck? I've read that identity theft, etc. has gone way up since the economy has been in such trouble.

Aug 09, 2012 09:14 AM
Patricia Kennedy
RLAH@properties - Washington, DC
Home in the Capital

Marte, I got one of these, too - in today's email.  I zapped it as spam, but I didn't think it might be scam!  I did almost click it, though.  Glad I didn't.

Aug 09, 2012 03:02 PM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Patricia - Lenn is probably correct in thinking they're scraping addresses from Active Rain. Who knows, it might have only been a sales pitch, but that one made me nervous.

Aug 09, 2012 05:30 PM
Patricia Kennedy
RLAH@properties - Washington, DC
Home in the Capital

Hey, Marte!  I included this post in Last Week's Favorites.  Have a great week!

Aug 12, 2012 02:40 AM
Pete Xavier
Investments to Luxury - Pacific Palisades, CA
Outstanding Agent Referrals-Nationwide

There are scams aplenty and this one might just be a pitch for a useless service.

Windows 8 I hear will be great in protecting from spy-wear and other bugs, it's coming out soon.

I open up most anything and never had a problem, solid protection is affordable.

Unfortunately it does not include spam control.

Aug 12, 2012 02:46 AM
Jeff Dowler, CRS
eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA
The Southern California Relocation Dude

Cool, I actually missed out on this one. I see stuff all the time, as well all do. It's pretty scary how legitimate some scammers can make the emails appear to be.  I get stuff from the USPS, FedEx, PayPal and YouTube, among others, daily that is clearly spam/scam

Aug 12, 2012 03:12 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Patricia - Thanks! These wouldn't be so scary if they were just advertisements we could ignore, but... what if they're something worse?

Pete - and if you try to set up your system to filter out spam, it might also filter out customers!

Jeff - I get them a lot "from" Pay Pal - and before deleting forward them on to spoof@paypal.com. They always write back and say it helps them get to the root of the scammers, so I keep doing it.

Aug 12, 2012 07:15 AM
Tanja Cisliek
Future Home Realty - Seminole, FL
Real estate with passion and professionalism!

Marte, thank you for posting, I am sometimes nervous and wondering about email messages, many are obvious (like the Nigerian Kind needing money transferred to a trustworthy person and I'm the lucky one!), but some are not. Luckily, the internet is a great resource, and most fraudulent messages can easily identified by just entering the link in the google search bar. Great reminder to be careful!

Aug 12, 2012 07:20 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Tanja - Yes, if you type out the link and don't copy/paste. The best idea if it is supposed to be coming from Pay Pal, UPS, your bank, etc. is just to go to their website from the address you regularly use. If you don't see anything strange and still wonder, just call them.

I got one recently saying there was a problem with my CitiBank account. If I HAD an account there it might have worried me.

Aug 12, 2012 07:30 AM
Mel Ahrens, MBA, Kelly Right Real Estate
Kelly Right Real Estate - Hood River, OR
Customized Choices for your Real Estate Needs

Isn't it horrible how much we have to worry about these things now days? Someone hacked my 13 year old's email and sends spam to all his contacts from that. So frustrating.

Gretchen

Aug 12, 2012 12:47 PM
Ed Silva, 203-206-0754
Mapleridge Realty, CT 203-206-0754 - Waterbury, CT
Central CT Real Estate Broker Serving all equally

Marte, that is a new one for me. I know there are all manner of ways for scammers to do their thing but this is something that I will definitely keep in mind to avoid

Aug 12, 2012 10:30 PM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Gretchen - that is really despicable. I've had it happen to me as well - and only found out when some of their mail bounced.

Ed - the worse the economy gets, the more desperate the crooks get to find ways to separate us from our $$.

Aug 13, 2012 07:28 AM
Anonymous
Cheryl

Hi Marte - I am not even a Real Estate agent but recvd a similar email (below).  The email harvestering program used by this sender apparently has the capability to compose or populate the email with the company or field you work in (in my case a university). Their website had no red flags according to my browser warning applets, so I did some homework on them & carefully went to the site, which does not have a deceptive embedded URL.  But the email message itself is a LIE.  There was NO such article or Honorable mention about me as stated in the email.  I also did a search for first, then last name in Google w/ [site:newsdigest.com] in the keyword box.  There is NO such occurrance (apparently) of my name, so the email itself is indeed a scam/spam, I guess just to draw people to their site.  Sleazy.

Expanding the email headers shows Abuse-Tracking info to be Forwarded to the host domain.  My suggestion for anyone who receives such similar msgs from"News Digest International" would be to expand the Full Headers & FWD the email to: <abuse@alphacen.net>.

This is the bogus email msg I recvd:

You received Honorable Mention in today's News Digest International (www.newsdigest.co), referencing your work at University of Hawaii.

There is also a Q&A section at the bottom of today's article, where readers can post questions and comments for you and your department.

We look forward to hearing more from your department in the future.

Sincerely,

Lisa Davis
News Digest International
http://www.newsdigest.co

 
Aug 14, 2012 11:30 AM
#21
Anonymous
Cheryl

UPDATE to the Comment #21 above.  The spam abuse report to <abuse@alphacen.net> bounced as a non-existent mailbox.  Sorry, not sure if there's anywhere else this website & spammer can be reported to.

Aug 14, 2012 12:41 PM
#22
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Cheryl - I used to have an address taped to my monitor - it was a reporting address for the FTC, I believe. I guess it went away when the monitor died. Need to find it again.

Aug 14, 2012 03:00 PM
Bob Crane
Woodland Management Service / Woodland Real Estate, KW Diversified - Stevens Point, WI
Forestland Experts! 715-204-9671

the address to report that you mentioned above might be this one that Yvette mentions in her blog - http://activerain.com/blogsview/3409598/spam-ahhhh-the-temptation-

I havent used it yet, hopefully it works.

Aug 15, 2012 03:58 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Thanks Bob - That's a good article, and the address is there: spam@uce.gov (I thought I remembered it, but wasn't sure enough to write it here. Glad Yvette passed it along.)

I've forwarded things to them many times in the past and think it's a postive thing to do - but don't expect a return email.

Aug 15, 2012 04:15 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Interesting, I just got an email from a gentleman who is an educator. He got a similar message from this company and decided to Google them instead of clicking. He found this post, then wrote me with thanks for the heads up.

So... they're still actively trying to get the unsuspecting to click.

Oct 01, 2012 01:40 PM
Anonymous
Fred Collett

Cheryl,

 

I got the same one about 15 minutes ago (same exact language, except to Mercy College).  I thought, perhaps, it was meant to attract academic egos (you know, "America's Top 100---" and so on).  Thanks for this service, Marte!idelaen

Oct 24, 2012 01:10 AM
#27
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Fred - Scammers are alive and well. My neighbor got a version of the "Nigerian Scam" on his fax machine yesterday - along with an advertisement for a free cruise. It's making him mad to pay for paper and ink for scammers. At least on our email we can just delete.

Oct 24, 2012 01:35 AM
Anonymous
Kayla

Marte, I just got this to my university address. It didn't mention the university I attend, so naturally I was suspicious. I googled them, and their site isn't blacklisted by Google, so I clicked. It looks like an amature site claiming to gather local and international news, and there's a link to download their news feed widget.. They display the widget on the front page, and it does indeed look like it gathers and displays news, but some of the article titles look a little odd.. It looks like it's open source, which is not necessarily a bad sign, and the souce code for it is listed on Google's code site.. That doesn't guarantee it's not malicious, though, and I have no desire to find out the hard way, so I'm going to avoid downloading it and suggest everyone else do the same.

 

Cheers!

Oct 25, 2012 05:11 AM
#29
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Kayla - My sentiments exactly. Better safe than sorry.

Oct 25, 2012 05:31 AM
Anonymous
Raquel Santiago

I received the same one this morning when I opened my University email and naturally typed out the link, nothing there ept the digest.  This got past 4 spam blockers, SFSU smap blockers, MCafee and malware naturally not new to these types of email.  I think that it just wanted people to go to their site, i checked all embedded material and everything.  But yes, the spam has gotten out of control.

Dec 05, 2012 02:24 AM
#31
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Raquel - and did they think that if you got to their site you'd want to stay, even though they got you there fraudulently? Goofy thinking!

Dec 05, 2012 02:44 AM
Wanda Kubat-Nerdin - Wanda Can!
Red Rock Real Estate (435) 632-9374 - St. George, UT
St. George Utah Area Residential Sales Agent

Marte, This message just showed up in my inbox. I went to their website to see if it looked reputable and it seems very vague and simple. I did not however click on the link provided. I am glad my ego did not get the best of me.

Dec 19, 2012 12:30 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Wanda - Good idea! You definitely don't need a scammy problem in your Christmas stocking.

Dec 19, 2012 01:11 AM
Anonymous
Vincent Ferraro

I also received the same e-mail stating, "You received Honorable Mention in today's News Digest International (www.newsdigest.co), referencing your work at the University." 

Unfortunately, I did click on the link that was provided in my e-mail and it brought me to the same website that several people have described above. I am just wondering if I should be aware of anything regarding Spam, virus, defects; especially since I click on the link directly. Please let me know if I need to do anything or what happened when I clicked on the link directly. I look forward to hearing from you guys. Thanks. 

-V

 
Jan 05, 2013 04:38 AM
#35
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Vincent - a few people have gone there and don't seem to have suffered harm. I think they're just trying to sell you something.

Jan 05, 2013 05:07 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Thanks - I didn't know that. I'll go read the instructions...

Jan 24, 2013 12:55 AM
Anonymous
Michael

The site looks boring and it does not seem to have anything fishy. I think they are just trying to jack up their web site's popularity.

Read the ranking here to get an idea about what I am talking about.

http://digsitevalue.net/s/newsdigest.co

 

Jan 28, 2013 07:43 AM
#38
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Michael - If that's their intent, they've been listening to some bad advice. Getting someone to your site under false pretenses is no way to make friends and influence people.

Jan 28, 2013 02:35 PM
Anonymous
Michael

Web sites are ranked/valued only based on the times of visits. Advertisers decide which sites to put their ads based on such ranking systems. Only the traffic matters. Whether people like it or not is a different matter. Besides, "raising ranking" is only my speculation because I couldn't find fishy things on the site, although I am pretty sure about it.

Jan 28, 2013 02:53 PM
#40
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Michael - those advertisers would do well to think about how long visitors might stick around. An ad isn't much good if people aren't there long enough to see it!

Jan 28, 2013 03:33 PM
Anonymous
Norma

I'm just a blogger, retired librarian, and I got the same notice.  Didn't click.

Jan 29, 2013 09:39 PM
#42
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Norma - They may be harmless, but they're definitely using a list that makes them look sinister.

Jan 30, 2013 06:36 AM
Inna Ivchenko
Barcode Properties - Encino, CA
Realtor® • GRI • HAFA • PSC Calabasas CA

Some people have their minds too twisted. I wish they spend their mind energy on creating something good and learn to earn money legitimately and not my fraud. I'm going to post also something very new, the spam for a realtors ( offer to sell high end estate:) they count on the greed withing us...does anyone really think that something that look too good can be true?

Mar 05, 2013 04:10 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Inna - I so agree with you. Just think of the good things that could happen if everyone used their mind power toward creating good things!

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is yes - some people really do think that something that looks too good to be true can be true. There are many levels of intelligence in this world.

Mar 05, 2013 04:42 AM
Inna Ivchenko
Barcode Properties - Encino, CA
Realtor® • GRI • HAFA • PSC Calabasas CA

Thanks dear Marte for your message and comments. I just posted a blog about my recent experience here. It is for members only, since it is only for realtors and i'm curious if other realtors had such customized...scam.

 

 

 

Mar 05, 2013 05:04 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Inna - That's an interesting email. And I'm sure that an agent or two will respond...

Mar 05, 2013 05:55 AM
Anonymous
R Powell

I am a staff worker in higher education. I got a similar email. Seems as if they're running out of real estate agents to send this to:

Good morning!

We wanted you to know that you and your department were honored in today's Academic Achievement Awards, recognizing students who have recently demonstrated academic success and the faculty and staff who have helped along the way.

The complete article and recipient list is available at www.newsdigest.co/news/academia for on-demand viewing and download.

We wish you the best of continued success!

Sincerely,

Lisa Davis
News Digest International
http://www.newsdigest.co

 

Apr 10, 2013 12:49 AM
#48
Wanda Kubat-Nerdin - Wanda Can!
Red Rock Real Estate (435) 632-9374 - St. George, UT
St. George Utah Area Residential Sales Agent

Marte, Lisa Davis form www.newsdigest.co is getting creative...I just receive an email that said that I and my brokerage just was recognized in an article for outstanding results in the real estate industry! DELETE! And I did.

Apr 18, 2013 04:30 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

So - you've both heard from Lisa! I wonder if there's a real person named Lisa Davis?

The last couple of days I've been getting mail from someone who doesn't want me to know who they are or what website they represent - but want me to click to update my password. OR - I can "click here" to unsubscribe.

No thanks - not clicking either of those links. DELETE!

Apr 18, 2013 04:59 AM
Monica Hill
RE/Max Associates - Wilmington, DE
the REALTOR to help you discover Delaware

Marte,

I can see that this phishing scam has been around for a while, judging by your blog post. I just got it today and instead of clicking the link, did a search for it. Your blog was the first thing that came up! Yeah, AR!

Apr 18, 2013 06:08 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Monica - Thanks for sharing that good news. We all need to be alert for scammers. Even if those links hold no danger, they don't deserve to be rewarded.

Apr 18, 2013 06:27 AM
Inna Ivchenko
Barcode Properties - Encino, CA
Realtor® • GRI • HAFA • PSC Calabasas CA

I've never heard about this one. yucks. It seems like the more we rely on technology the more it has the ability to harm us.  I will definitely have my eyes open for any text messages from marketers. Thanks for heads up.

Apr 23, 2013 03:47 PM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Inna - As long as they're just trying to sell something they're only annoying. I worry about the ones who have a more evil intent.

Apr 24, 2013 01:26 AM
Anonymous
Phuong Le

Got the same message from Lisa Davis as all of you and the first thing came to my mind is: this must be a scam, and voila_ - your site came up on Google. Thank you all!

May 07, 2013 06:17 PM
#55
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Phuong - Thanks for sharing. Lisa Davis certainly is active!

I've gotten a few others lately that were for real estate agents - leading me to believe that the scammers are simply gathering names from Active Rain without looking to see if the person is an agent or not.

Another scary one lately has been coming from "Pay Pal." It warns that my account is about to be closed, so "click here." I think that one could be dangerous.

Yet another tells me that they've been unable to deliver my package... what package?

May 08, 2013 03:43 AM
Anonymous
Mark in Seattle

Thanks a lot for this discussion - I also found it via a Google search.

I work in the nonprofit sector, and got the following (did not click on their links):

Good morning!

We wanted you to know that you received Honorable Mention in yesterday's article titled "Who's Who in Local Communities" by Stephen Bozanek, recognizing individuals and businesses who have recently contributed to improving their local communities.

The article will remain available at www.newsdigest.co/news/communities/ for the next few hours and is available for on-demand download and printing.

We wish you the best of continued success.

Sincerely,

Lisa Davis
News Digest International
http://www.newsdigest.co

Jun 30, 2013 03:59 PM
#57
Liz Lockhart
Riverbend Realty, Cape Girardeau, MO - Cape Girardeau, MO
GRI, Cape Girardeau Real Estate

I just got it.

Good morning!

We wanted you to know that you received Honorable Mention in yesterday's article titled "Who's Who in Local Communities" by Stephen Bozanek, recognizing individuals and businesses who have recently contributed to improving their local communities.

The article will remain available at www.newsdigest.co/news/communities/ for the next few hours and is available for on-demand download and printing.

We wish you the best of continued success.

Sincerely,

Lisa Davis
News Digest International
http://www.newsdigest.co

 

Follow the link and you get nothing that resembles the promised article. Scam, for sure.

Jul 11, 2013 05:16 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Mark and Liz - You have to wonder about their purpose in sending these. Do they think you'll go to their page and spend money? 

Jul 11, 2013 06:19 AM
Anonymous
Sara

Came to read the article, but your web page is a mess with type overlapping and photos out of place. Just thought you'd want to contact your page designer.

Jul 17, 2013 03:58 PM
#60
Anonymous
Sara

And then... after submitting my comment, the page reloads and it clear. Still might want to look into it...

Jul 17, 2013 03:59 PM
#61
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Sara - I don't know where I'd look, since this is the Active Rain platform. Sometimes it does get wonky. 

Jul 17, 2013 05:49 PM
Martin E. Kalisker, Esq.
Natick, MA
Real Estate Law From A Practical Perspective

Lisa Davis is alive and well.  She is now sending emails to agents that haven't worked for me for over 5 years, have moved out of state and may not even be licensed.  But, according to newsdigest.co, this agent is being recognized for "outstanding service."  What a load of dog doo doo.

Nov 06, 2013 12:59 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

What is newsdigest.co? And why are they so full of dog droppings? 

Nov 08, 2013 03:40 AM
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