Special offer

Warning: Unless You Trust The Sender Don't Click Links Or Reply.

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments 521400, 1501015, 01795582

Warning

 

Unless You Trust The Sender

 

 

Don't Click Links Or Reply.

 

I just received this email this morning. First I've ever heard of or seen this. Thought I should pass it along to the AR community. Unfortunately I didn't get the Warning message below before I answered the email. It just came. Needless to say I can only hope I didn't give up much more than my email address but I can't be sure given the shrudness of CYBER THIEVES nowadays.

 

This was my answer to his email:

John DL Arendsen 

Feb 1
 
to fishnet002
 
 
 
 

 

What specific geographical areas are you interested in?

 

Has anyone else seen anything like this?

 

Steven Coleman

7:27 AM (9 hours ago)
 
to me
Be careful with this message. Similar messages were used to steal people's personal information. Unless you trust the sender, don't click links or reply with personal information.  Learn more
 
 
 
 
Hello John,

   Hope all is going well with you, I have been busy with work,I would be more than happy to work with you in acquiring this property, I have other properties I've looked at and saw similar pictures of houses I'm interested in. If you send me a list of the other homes that you have available, I can make a choice and also I saw a similar home I'm interested and would love you to take a look at it,also my price range is from 850.000.00 to 1,000.000.00. Here is the link to the home I saw and Interested in buying the home page attach with prove of fund and i am a cash buyer, you can take a look at it by click and logging into the Google image gallery

RE2 25 Photo View (MLS)

Let me know if we can get similar home like this.
Looking forward to your response,
Regards
Posted by

Why To Choose Us?

John DL Arendsen, Broker, General & Manufactured Home Contractor and Dealer 

TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments

TAG (The Arendsen Group) Real Estate Sales & Investments is a full service, one-stop, turnkey, family owned and operated real estate brokerage, General Contractor, Manufactured Home Contractor, Developer, Investor, Property Manager, Interior Design, Engineering, architectural, Landscape design, Expert Witness, Consulting, Curative Title and Troubleshooting company with over 100 years of combined experience in the San Diego real estate sales, construction, design & development arena.

 

 

 

 

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Comments (18)

Jeff Jensen
The Federal Savings Bank/Lending in 50 states - Greenwich, CT


There is no doubt cyberspace is pretty risky these day.

Feb 18, 2015 06:13 AM
Georgette Leal
TNG Real Estate Consultants - Long Beach, CA
Probate & Divorce Specialist

Good info. If only folks had more common sense...

Feb 18, 2015 06:23 AM
Christopher Pagli
William Raveis Legends Realty Group - Tarrytown, NY
"I Stay Open Until You Close"

This is a never ending story.  Everyday there is a new scam, amazing!  

Feb 18, 2015 06:28 AM
John DL Arendsen
CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments - Leucadia, CA
Crest Backyard Homes "ADU" dealer & RE Developer

Georgette Leal Not sure I'm understanding the common sense comment. This looked pretty convincing and very much like many if not most lead inquiries I get and I'm sure others do as well.

Feb 18, 2015 06:51 AM
Winston Heverly
Coldwell Banker Access Realty - South Macon, GA
GRI, ABR, SFR, CDPE, CIAS, PA

John,  a helpful read today that will definitely give us food for thought to today's message of keeping up with our real estate practices.

Feb 18, 2015 11:08 AM
Michael Dagner
Brokers Guild Classic - Denver, CO
Your Denver Homes Realty Expert

Hi John, sometimes I see those 'beware' messages in emails that are from trusted senders.  Can't entirely figure out how google misreads them.

Feb 18, 2015 12:00 PM
Myrl Jeffcoat
Sacramento, CA
Greater Sacramento Realtor - Retired

It is essential to your PC's well-being that you be discriminate in what you click on in the cyber world.  I try to be cautious, but have had a couple of mishaps that were serious over the years.

Feb 18, 2015 12:43 PM
Bill Roberts
Brooks and Dunphy Real Estate - Oceanside, CA
"Baby Boomer" Retirement Planner

Hi John, Yes, I've received emails like this. They just didn't pass the smell test so I ignored them. Good luck to you.

Bill Roberts

BTW Weren't we supposed to get points for attending the meetup?

Feb 18, 2015 11:30 PM
John DL Arendsen
CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments - Leucadia, CA
Crest Backyard Homes "ADU" dealer & RE Developer

Bill Roberts Like I've told others, I am pretty good at smelling rotton fish as well and seldom get duped. But if you read the message without the warning it looks reasonably ligit when you get emails like this from prospective clients which is not unusual in the North San Diego Coastal RE market.

Feb 18, 2015 11:37 PM
Bill Roberts
Brooks and Dunphy Real Estate - Oceanside, CA
"Baby Boomer" Retirement Planner

John, If it doesn't have a full name and a phoine number I won't respond, and I absolutely won't click a link. When you get something like this you can "see" THE SOURCE CODE. I have found executable programs hidden in the email message.

Bill Roberts

Feb 18, 2015 11:46 PM
Anonymous
Dr. Gerald Goldhaber

Cyber criminals know no limits. Last week, I got a warning from my bank, M&T, on their letterhead and with their logo....very impressive...they told me my account was being hacked and I should immediately log into my bank account to change the settings. Of course, I turned the email over to M&T's fraud department for prosecution (I doubt they'll ever find the thieves, let alone prosecute them). Even if you know somebody, scams do occur. I got an email from the Cantor at my synagogue telling me she was stuck in London because she had been robbed and mugged and needed airfare home. I almost believed her until my ex-wife told me she got the same email, as did both of my children and several of my friends, none of whom even belonged to the synagogue. Go figure!

Feb 19, 2015 05:38 AM
#11
John DL Arendsen
CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments - Leucadia, CA
Crest Backyard Homes "ADU" dealer & RE Developer

Bill Roberts I must take issue with the inference that if there's no phone # it's SPAM. I often get very legitimate email inquiries from potential clients who don't leave their P# because they don't want to be called. They just want infol

In fact I'll take it one step further. I have five Mellenials who don't use their phones unless its practically a life or death situation. They much prefer texting. BTW this person did leave their full name: Steve Coleman

Perhaps we should discuss over a cool one at the Pacific Coast Grill sometime? LOL!

 
Feb 19, 2015 10:59 PM
John DL Arendsen
CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments - Leucadia, CA
Crest Backyard Homes "ADU" dealer & RE Developer

Gerald, I too have received very convincing emails with very impressive and exact graphics from my so called banks and financial institutions telling me the same thing. 

I've also recieved the emails telling me a loved one or a friend had been robbed and mugged. Those have been around for awhile. But this one almost duped me because it's so close to similar emails I've received from legitimate potential clients/leads.

My point here is that they're getting smarter and sneakier by the day and we all need to use very tight scrutiny with everything we do online nowadays.

Feb 19, 2015 11:05 PM
Jeanne Gregory
RE/MAX Southwest - Sugar Land, TX
The most important home I sell is YOURS!

I got a similar text.  I didn't respond, but when I Googled the number there are a lot of responses about this being a hoax.  No one mentioned identity theft, just that this guy was a pain in the backside. 

Feb 22, 2015 11:00 PM
Pamela Seley
West Coast Realty Division - Murrieta, CA
Residential Real Estate Agent serving SW RivCo CA

Yes, I have had similar email and it is very convincing except for an unrealistic price range -- $650,000 to $3.5 mil. It must be another phishing tactic by criminals. They must have realized we've finally caught on and no one is buying the Nigerian royalty I want to give you millions because you're special emails. It would be interesting to know how many people over the years filled out that form with their banking information and sent it back. 

Feb 23, 2015 12:39 AM
Georgette Leal
TNG Real Estate Consultants - Long Beach, CA
Probate & Divorce Specialist

To clarify my comment of "If only folks had more common sense..." specifically means that some of these emails look real, while others DO "look" or "sound" mickey-mousy.. Obviously don't open these...Not all phishing emails come in the same type, size/flavor.

Feb 23, 2015 07:06 AM
John DL Arendsen
CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments - Leucadia, CA
Crest Backyard Homes "ADU" dealer & RE Developer

Pamela Seley, REALTOR® That price desparity would look a little suspicous no doubt. However, 850-1m looks very plausable to me and I get inquiries like this routinely couple with gramatic and spelling errors. In fact spell check doesn't catch all errors or picks a word based on phonetics and the writer (including me) doesn't always check it.

Feb 23, 2015 10:52 AM
Lynn B. Friedman CRS Atlanta, GA 404-617-6375
Atlanta Homes ODAT Realty - Love our Great City - Love our Clients! Buckhead - Midtown - Westside - Atlanta, GA
Concierge Service for Our Atlanta Sellers & Buyers

John DL Arendsen
Excellent advice. I just wrote a cautionary post similar to this myself - why don't those people just get a job and leave the rest of us alone?

Have a happy day -
Lynn

May 18, 2015 02:27 AM