Property purchase scam

Over the past week I have been subject to a potential scam regarding my property in Spain. I have it listed with a couple of online free listing sites and have my own website with photos and details. I received, to summarise, several e-mails from a Mr. Alex Henri (in French) saying he wished to purchase the property for his two children, who no longer wished to go backto boarding school. He wanted the bank details of my solicitor (he said Notario) so he could deposit 20% of the purchase price. He attached files purporting to be photo-copies of his psssport (Resident of Cote d'Ivoire = Ivory Coast) and his Marriage Certificate. It was pretty obvious the passport was forged as his details were clear and sharp whereas the rest was a muchy mess. My soliciotr and I discussed this and although he wanted either me or her to call him (he gave what he said was a private telephone number) when asked to call my solicitor (who speaks only Spanish and I speak only a little Spanish but we get on OK) as she speaks some French too, he simply replied again saying it was necessary for her to call him to discuss the arrangements. In the end, I decided to just e-mail him to say I was selling to a local resident. I am mentioning this in case it can help others. I would like to send the file attachments mentioned to someone in authority in his region as there is the passport copy with, presumably, his photo and that private telephone number. Anyone any ideas on this please?[/img]

Hi Zone8.

In the end, I decided to just e-mail him to say I was selling to a local resident.

That was exactly the right thing to do. This person should just move on and leave you alone.

Sadly, there won't be much the authorities can do with the passport or phone number. As you surmised, the passport has been faked. This person either found a copy of it on the internet and then used a graphics program to doctor it up, or it came from another target of one of his scams and that person's details have been altered.

The phone number is most likely a mobile phone (probably disposable) which can't be traced back to the scammer.

Many thanks Tom. Will not bother to try and contact, so thanks for clarifying.

Hello Zone8, good to hear you knew this was a scam. As stated above, I am not sure the authorities can be of much assistance. There is very little to go on. Thanks for sharing. You never know who might read this and realize it is a scam on time.

Hi Zone and welcome

Please post the email address of the scammer too. This way other potential victims will find him, when doing a search online.

Zone8, thank you for posting this up; it may well help to alert others. I'm glad you did not get taken in.

Here arethe details I have on the scammer:

Mr. Alex Henri
Telephne: 0022507179039
e-mail: [email protected]

DOB on passport shown as 12 Septembre 1970
Passport Number: 02438666/DST
(Perhaps the 666 bit should have been a clue?)
Valid to: 05 Mars 2008

Also name of M Abidjan (RCI) = issuing officer or district??

Passport country: Republique de Côte D'Ivoire

There is also: 96LA99261 printed and would appear also to be shown via perforated on cover page to the PP

As said, language was French.

Here's an extract from one e-mail:
_________________________________________

Bonjour MR BRIAN ALLEN ,

Je suis bel et bien intéressé par votre maison et j'ai un budget que je pense pourra couvrir les frais de la maison.


Je désire donc entamer la procédure d'achat et donc je vous envoie mon état civil avec la copie de mon passeport que vous allez remettre a votre notaire afin que celui ci etablisse un compromis de vente.

Pour le versement, je compte vous faire un virement de 20% du montant de la maison sur le RIB de votre notaire et comme je compte arriver dans votre région d'ici la mi-Aout juste le temps que mes enfants prennes leurs vacances , je viendrai donc pour signer le compromis et regler le reste de l'affaire.

Mais le plus important c'est que j'obtienne le RIB de votre notaire afin d'effectuer le versement des 20% en guise de garantie d'achat ce qui va vous permettre donc d'arrêter la vente.

Je suis dans l'attente de votre reponse et j'aimerais que vous me contactez par telephone : 0022507179039 , dès reception de mon courrier afin de me confirmer l'accuser de reception de mon message.

coordialement .

Mr ALEX HENRI

It's worth noting that passports are often counterfeit (of varying quality). Scammers often offer them up very quickly to establish their "bona fide" intentions, but when you consider that very few business transactions involve the exchange of passports, this custom by scammers should start one's alarm bells ringing.

Welcome Zone!
Glad you figured that scam out. If you sell anything else, or come across anything that looks fishy; Trust your instincts, and feel free to come back here and ask questions when you're uncertain.

Hi. This is my first post. I want to congratuulate you for your excellent and informative site.

I am familiar with the traditional 419 scams coming from Nigeria, but I have just had a similar experience to Zone8.

I have a property (a piece of land) for sale in my city (I am from Spain) in an internet site. Yesterday I received a call from a man that was interested in it. He wanted to see the property, that is just outside the city. I told him we could meet in front of the property, but he told me he had no car and wanted to know how to get there by public transport. The guy´s accent was clearly african.

I finally told him I would pick him up with my car and take him to see the property. I did. He was an african man. He saw it but made no comments, nor discussed the price. He just said he was a middle man of a rich person from Ivory Coast that wanted to invest money in Spain. He said he would contact me in two days to make me an offer and do "the arrangements". I took him back to the city. The contact ended there.

As you can imagine, all the red lights turned on. I am sure this man is a scammer. But the funny thing is that I thought the scam would consist in telling me that the "investment" money in Ivory Coast would require me to pay some fees to be transfered to Spain or any other similar scam which, of course, I would have politely rejected.

But after reading the previous post, I am a bit puzzled. If he says he will deposit the 20% of the price to my notario (solicitor) when signing the reserve document, what will the scam be about?

If he makes a deposit, can he later reverse it? I am sure it can´t be done in Spain. If the answer is yes, will the scam consist in transferring more than the 20% and then asking my solicitor for a partial refund to finally reverse the transfer? He can´t do it with a check, as spanish banks won´t give you the money unless the chech has funds (it takes several days to cash a check).

If someone has experience on this type of scam, please let me know. I have curiosity to know what exactly this scumbag will pull out.

By the way, I know that these guys are potentially dangerous, so I went to the meeting with a friend of mine and a stun gun (I was suspicious from the beginning). And when he calls me to make me an "offer", I will surely tell him that I have already sold the property so I have no contact with him again.

Thanks and Best regards.

Hi Sierra, Welcome to ScamWarners!
First off, I'm very glad that you realized that this was a scam before parting with any money!

As to your question, there are a number of ways this could work. The first is, of course, the old fake cheque deal. I'd have to check on Spain, but the banks in most countries WILL give provisional access to the funds before a cheque clears the issuing bank, particularly if the client has a solid account history. It can take literally months for a cheque to clear the issuing bank, esp if said bank is overseas. Other ways for them to accomplish this would be to transfer the money from phished bank accounts, or to "flash" your account, either by using someone inside their bank to make a fake transfer or by opening an account with bogus cheques and then transferring the money into your account.

This may be a standard overpayment scam, but I suspect it's a "refund" deal. What will probably happen is that shortly after the deposit is made, there will be some emergency that makes the client unable to complete the purchase, at which point he will ask for a refund (less 10-20% for your "trouble"). As you can see from what I wrote above; when the fraud is discovered, the bank will reverse all credits, leaving you out the amount you "refunded" to your scammer.

Property scams are a real problem with the booming market of people wanting to buy overseas properties as investments or for their retirement. This link has some useful information:

http://www.totallyproperty.com/scams/

However, like all scams the same rule applies - be extremely cautious and do plenty of background checking and research before committing yourself to what appears to be a deal that's just too good to be true - it's certainly no good and absolutely not true.

Thank you very much for your help.

I´ll try to investigate how check clearing works in Spain. Maybe it can be of help to others when being scammed.

I think the "refund" scam won´t work in this case. When you sign a reservation document for a property and give a deposit, there is a clause that states that if you decide not to buy the property, you get penalized by losing all the deposit.

I would try to bait these people, and even try to "rob" the robber", but I suspect these are gangs, and as they are in the same city, it would be a dangerous thing to do.

I want to thank you very much for your assistance and help. If this thread has helped others not to get robbed, then I will be really happy.

Regards,

Sierracharriba

DOB on passport shown as 12 Septembre 1970
Passport Number: 02438666/DST
(Perhaps the 666 bit should have been a clue?)
Valid to: 05 Mars 2008

Also name of M Abidjan (RCI) = issuing officer or district??

Passport country: Republique de Côte D'Ivoire

There is also: 96LA99261 printed and would appear also to be shown via perforated on cover page to the PP

On a whim, I put some of these details into a standard search engine. Here's much the same fake passport being used by someone who claims to be called PAUL EMMANUEL EKRA: http://www.as-sg.it/img/truffa/passaporto.pdf

I would try to bait these people, and even try to "rob" the robber", but I suspect these are gangs, and as they are in the same city, it would be a dangerous thing to do.

One of the best ways to 'fight back' against internet scammers is to warn your family, friends and colleagues to be very, very cautious when dealing with ANY kind of business proposal on the internet. You would be amazed how many people still have no idea about these criminals and how they operate which is why they continue to rob and ruin people's lives.