Watch out for crooks!
If you put an ad on the internet, selling a house, or a boat or a car, you might be contacted by persons with less than honorable goals. As webmaster of Immogo and Zorro Immo I've seen quite a lot of them passing by. So please allow me to give you some tips about how to avoid being foiled by these people.

For starters, be wary about people who start by stating they want to buy your house. Normally, people will start by posing questions, asking for more pictures, the geographical situation, the possibilities of adding a room. Stuff like that. And, of course, they will want to visit your house before making an offer. If someone makes you a firm offer before even visiting your house, you can be certain something is awry. Especially if they come out with a very interesting offer. They are trying to lure you. Don't bite!

There are those that will pose as international investors that want to buy your real estate with a lot of cash. They want to make you believe you are entering into and profiting from a money laundering operation. But in reality, they just want you to come to some foreign city - Milan, Amsterdam, Paris - where they will propose to make an exchange. They will offer you a substantial amount of foreign currency very cheap. You night believe you are going to make some easy (albeit illegal) money fast. But in reality you are going to enter a rip deal. Where the crooks are gone with your cash. And leave you with a bag full of worthless paper. Or even just put a gun in your face and take your money without entering into anything as fancy as a scam.

Another popular trick is where a prospective buyer - often from some African country (country code 22 or 39) - sends you a hefty down payment of say 50.000 Europe's with a very official bank check. Usually from Western Union. Next, the buyer will ask you to wire him a small sum of about 2000 euros, to cover expenses or to grease some palms. You think it is okay, since you have a guarantee. As soon as you send the money, the bank account will be closed, the check worthless and the buyer gone.

Bonjour Mr je suis un particulier qui très intéresser par l achat de votre bien pourriez-vous me contacter au numéro suivent pour fixé un rendez-vous très rapidement
Cordialement S.b. tel:0039331750xxxx

E-mails of scam artists like this are often very particular. The writing is stilted and sometime full of mistakes. They will speak of the firm intention of buying your house even though they've never seen it. And the sender is often a reverend, a doctor of a government official. Sometimes they'll just send a very short mail asking for your telephone number, so they can call you. some examples:

Hello mr, I just see your ad on the Internet real estate and it turns out that I am interésser contact me for more information +3361345xxxx

Hello,
I want to use this opportunity to inform you that I am interested in your property
If the property is available do contact me urgently and send me your phone contact so I can call you for the transaction.
Here is my direct phone
+ 33 613 84x xxx.

Bonjour
je suis un entrepreneur international,concernant votre maison j'ai actuelement un client intérréssé alors je voudrai savoir le dernier prix et aussi des photos supplementaires.

Hi Seller,
I'm Rev.Ori Dakari who reside in usa, but presently not in the state.I'm interested in purchasing your House which you place on netcouple of days ago for my family,so i'll like you to email me the last offer price and it's present condition inluding the picture.

Je suis tres interessé par votre annonce  et pour l'interet que je porte pour celle-ci ,j'aimerais que vous m'en disiez un peu plus sur son prix et sur son etat actuel ,si possible me faire parvenir quelque photos, je suis un cadre et je vie actuellement en (AFRIQUE) Côte d'ivoire, Je compte l'acheter pour en faire cadeau à mon fils.

Sincerement salutation,
Mr L. P.

Je me Nomme Mr VANIE SERGE PROPRIETAIRE DE DEUX ECOLES et PROPRITAIRE D'UN PARC AUTO et je reside en cote d'ivoire.En effet je voudrais porter à votre connaissance que je suis bel et bien intéressé pour lachat de votre Appartement ou Maison . Cependant faites moi parvenir les photos ainsi que le plan de la maison ,le prix exacte et quelques informations supplementaires. Pour plus d'information consernent ma demande vous pouvez me joindre a mon numero qui figure

As you can see, sometimes they are quite convincing. And they are getting better at it, too! Often, the only way I can tell they are not real buyers is because they will ask information about a wide array of houses all over the country and in many price ranges. Fortunately, I get a copy of all the mails sent to sellers on Zorro Immo. If I have the slightest suspicion about the intention of the prospective buyer, I will not hesitate to warn the seller to be very cautious.

Immogo clients, go for it!
Zorro Immo at the moment has 235 real estate ads online, of which but 235 have been reactivated by the owner. This means 200 houses can be admired by the visitors, without any possibility to contact the owner. Pity! Have you reactivated your ad yet? If you haven't, go to Zorro Immo and fill out the reinscription form. It's free!

No more ads in your presentation
On Zorro Immo we display the socalled Google Ads, like the one below. This is a way of making some money on the side. Sometimes this led to misunderstandings, for instance when an ad for a campground with pool popped up under the picture of a clients' villa with pool. From now on, the individual
presentation pages are advertising-free.

Zorro Immo free for Immogo clients
With Zorro Immo, advertisers don't pay anything after the sale of their home, even if it came about through the site. New advertisers pay a fixed fee, but former clients of Immogo can re-activate their ad on Zorro Immo for free. It is important to me that they do, because their ads are valuable 'site content' with great impact on the referencing by the search engines. So if you please, do re-activate your house. The only thing you risk, is selling your house for free!