How To Deal With Fraud...

**lindsay_levin** · 11-06-2009, 03:12 PM

I'm a real estate agent from NY. Today, I did a search for one of my listings online and found that someone had posted a local business listing for my real estate company on Yahoo! local listings website but with a different phone number... ? So, the person submitted a listing to Yahoo! local with my business address and business name but they submitted a phone number different from my own. I figure that maybe they're trying to route some of the calls that would have gone to me for my online listings to their number instead. But I'm really unsure about what they're trying to get at...

Anyway, I paid for a phone search for the number that shows up in the listing and I got the name of the person who owns the phone number along with their address as well. I did a few searches in the realtor database (for that name) to see if she's a registered NY realtor but nothing came up under that name.

I'm going to write/call Yahoo! and ask them to remove that listing. But I really want to get down to the bottom of this and find out who is playing these games. Maybe it's a rival realtor in my area?? I've already paid for a search profile for that phone number but that hasn't gotten me very far. How else can I approach this?

**dognponyshow** · 11-06-2009, 04:13 PM

Unless it's a toll-free number, you know the general location from the area code and exchange, right? If so, is it within a reasonable distance? Can you just call about a listing (as a potential customer) and set up a showing? At the very least, it should get you the person's name, maybe even a business card. It should be a simple matter to check the license status of the person, most state real estate commissions put the names online for consumer protection purposes.

Let us know what happens.

**lindsay_levin** · 11-06-2009, 04:24 PM

That was one of the first things I did - call the number. A funny thing happened... I called the number from my office number and the person answered, "Ms. Levin?"

I said, "Hello?"

And they said, "Goodbye!" and hung up!!!

Later, I got my friend to call back from her number (with me on three-way) and that didn't go well at all: my friend had trouble dialing the number on 3-way from her cell phone so she ended up hanging up twice after a few rings before the person could answer the phone. By the 3rd time, finally we got the person on the phone, but they must have put two-and-two together because when the person picked up the phone she said (it's a female), "Please stop calling this number," and hung up. I was just furious.

So scheduling a showing might not be possible unless I get a 2nd friend to call the number... I don't know if I want to go that far. Seems like a last resort at this point - I want to handle this matter as professionally (ironic) as possible and most importantly, discreetly. But I'm dying to know who is behind this.

But my aim is to really just shut their operation and have some kind authority warn them off...

**lindsay_levin** · 11-06-2009, 04:28 PM

Right - and the person's number that came up under the paid phone search profile I did find out - I plugged that name into Dept. of State website but the name didn't come up. I'm wondering if the person who is pulling all this actually lives with the person who's name is registered w/ that phone number...

**dognponyshow** · 11-06-2009, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by lindsay_levin

But my aim is to really just shut their operation and have some kind authority warn them off...

Well, that's the thing -- unless they're doing something illegal, such as practicing real estate brokerage without a license, no authority is going to warn them about anything. Just using your business name, unless it's got legal protection such as a registered trademark, isn't illegal. That's why it would be handy to get a business card, or have them show someone a listing.

So far, all they've done is answer their own phone. Do you think it's at all possible that the number is shown on that page in error? I have no idea how the Yahoo! Local system finds and captures listings. Is it possible that the "spider" or whatever somehow tagged your business name with the number for some other business? Might be a good question to ask Yahoo!

**lindsay_levin** · 11-06-2009, 05:26 PM

Ah... right.

I considered that - that maybe Yahoo! crawled the internet, found my business, and picked up the wrong number and attached it to the listing... Hmmm... I really didn't give that too much thought.

But if this were a case of fraud or some kind of scam, it would make sense because the listing is using an old business address of mine, which leads me to believe that the person (who may be a realtor) is using information from one of my old business cards. And then there was that weird initial phone call I gave them where they smugly called me by name and then smugly said "Goodbye!" before hanging up...

Anyway, Yahoo! and Google (the person also placed a listing on Google Local) allows you to edit the listing info in case the details are wrong so I went in and corrected the phone and physical business address... I don't know what to do next... Maybe I should just wait it out.