“Victims of scams are ashamed”

You simply post an ad and you suddenly turn into the target of a scam.

A native of Differdange, Vincent* decided to sell a couple of properties by advertising them on real estate websites registered in Luxembourg. “For my house I was contacted by a so-called manager who was commissioned by a Dutch businessman. He wanted to buy my house without negotiating the price and without any first-hand look at it. He offered me a bribe and asked me to travel to Brussels to finalize the deal. As for my apartment, things followed a very similar plot except for this time it was a Swiss diamond trader who wanted me to come to Milan to settle the matter as soon as possible”.

“If the buyer tries to pay small bills, it is clearly an attempt at money laundering,” says Bernadette Friederici, who works for the Ministry of the Middle Classes. “The cheater can provide a check for a large amount and ask the seller to pay the difference via bank transfer. When the seller realizes that the check is uncovered, he is already done. Last possibility, the alleged buyer attempts to retrieve documents, such as an ID card of the seller, to reuse them to his account”. Even though “our” Vincent did not fulfill this request, some others are not that careful.

“It is estimated that only 10% of those targeted by a scam speak up and report openly about their case” says Bernadette Friederici. “The victims of such scams often do not complain because they are ashamed for they have been cheated or because they were involved into something illegal and so they can’t even complain for somebody has cheated on them”.

* The name is fictional.

P.S. A good lesson to learn: always contact a knowledgeable and professional agent to avoid scams… ;-)