Most of us, unfortunately, have encountered a real estate text scam or two.
If you’re a real estate agent, that probably frustrates you. You’re running an honest business and (legally) using texts to promote it and these scam texts make people lose faith in real estate SMS messages.
American consumers lost $330 million to text scams in 2022, up from $131 million and $86 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
The best thing you can do, both to build up strong relationships with your clients and to restore some trust in real estate text messaging, is to let your audience know about these scams and help them steer clear.
We’re going to talk about what these scams are, which ones are prevalent right now, and how to keep your clients safe and aware.
What are real estate text scams?
Real estate text scams are fraudulent texts that are designed to get money or personal information from the recipient.
Which real estate scam texts are popular now?
One of the difficult things about real estate scam texts is that they continually change as people stop falling victim to them.
As of right now, the common real estate text scams are:
Unsolicited text requests to buy your home
Unsolicited texts asking if you’d like to sell your home
Messages from someone named “Sylvia” checking if you still own your home at a certain address and if you’re planning to sell it
Supposed home buyers asking for your bank account information so they can wire you money
A request for alternate bank account details because a wire didn’t go through
Texts offering a loan to help you avoid foreclosure in exchange for temporary ownership of the deed to your home
An “identity verification” text asking for a photo of your driver’s license and social security card
How to protect your clients from real estate text scams
You’re in this business to help your clients buy and sell their homes in a legal, comfortable, and advantageous way.
Fulfilling that goal means helping your audience recognize and avoid real estate scam texts like the ones we just talked about.
How do you do that? It’s entirely up to you, but you could:
First and foremost, inform your clients that you will never, ever text them asking for their personal or financial information.
[AGENCY NAME] won’t text you asking for personal or financial details.
Give your subscribers one or two ways to contact you if they receive a suspicious message to confirm that it’s not from you (like calling you on your cell number).
If you received a suspicious message claiming to be from us, call us at [NUMBER] or email us at [EMAIL ADDRESS] to verify.
Send out anti-scam education in the form of videos, links to blog posts, or PDFs.
We’ve released a new YouTube video filling you in on the latest text scams so you can stay safe. Check it out at [LINK].
Text a basic alert when a new scam pops up and describe it to your contacts so they can be on the lookout.
Be aware: A new scam is going around offering foreclosure loans. If you receive a text like this, ignore it.
Once you know what you want to send, just pop your message into the Campaigns tab through SimpleTexting to let all of your contacts know about new scams or create an Inbox template to quickly address individual concerns as they come in.
How to keep your texts from sounding like a scam
Fortunately, although we’re talking about text scams, the fact remains that text messaging is one of the most spam-free communication channels out there, because of the laws and regulations in place to keep it that way.
To successfully run a real estate texting program, you’ll need to be in compliance with those rules and regulations. While there’s a lot to staying in compliance, the top three things to remember are:
You must let your subscribers know how to opt out of future messages from you.
You must identify your brand in your first text and let contacts know how often you plan to text them.
This is an example of a compliant opt-in web form I made in SimpleTexting’s platform.
Aside from those practices, you can also word your texts carefully so they don’t look spammy. That means avoiding words and phrases like:
FREE
$$$
OPEN NOW
CLAIM YOUR PRIZE
DON’T DELETE
Contact us immediately
Payment failed
Not spam
Attention
Having worked in the text marketing industry for years, I always say that if you wouldn’t open it yourself, don’t send it to your clients.
Real estate text scam prevention examples
Now you’ve got the concepts and a plan of action, but you may still be looking for some inspiration. Here are a few example texts you can send to your clients to keep them safe from real estate scam texts.
Official statement on contact policies
“[NAME OF AGENCY] will never contact you by text asking for your personal details or financial information. If you receive a text claiming to be from us that you’re not sure about, call our office.”
Anti-spam education content
“Steer clear of text scams by following the key steps in this video! Feel free to text us with any questions.”
“Worried about SMS scams now that the housing market is dipping? We wrote this easy blog article to help you identify and avoid text scams [link]”
Got a suspicious text from a real estate agent? It could be a scam. Don’t open or reply to these texts and call a trusted real estate firm if you need help.
Current scam alert
“Hey [NAME OF AGENCY] family! Be on the lookout. If you get a text from someone named Sylvia asking to buy your home, don’t engage with it.”
“We’ve been hearing from some of our clients that texts are going out offering foreclosure relief loans. Don’t open or respond to these texts.”
Hi all! [NAME] from [AGENCY] here. A scammer has been using our company’s name to ask for fraudulent wire transfers, so call us if you receive a suspicious text and don’t reply.
Contact instructions for your business
“Got a strange text from someone claiming to represent our company? Call us at [NUMBER] or reach out to [AGENT NAME] at [NUMBER] to verify.”
FAQs
Still got questions? So do a lot of other homeowners and realtors. Here are the most common questions we get about real estate scam texts.
While there are some buyers out there who will reach out unsolicited to try and buy a property, this is also a common tactic used in real estate spam texts. If you’re unsure, contact your realtor by their website contact form or call them on their cell number to confirm.
Technically, yes, it is legal to receive a text message asking to buy your house. But if you didn’t agree to receive texts from that person or company, it’s best to ignore it because it could be a real estate texting scam.
There are lots of strategies scammers are currently using to take advantage of home buyers and sellers, but real estate spam texts mostly follow a few themes:
Asking you to wire money or accept a wire transfer, requesting personal information to fill out a profile or finish some paperwork, offering to buy your home out of the blue, or asking you to sign over the deed to your home or accept a loan
Most people would agree cookies make life better.
For us, they help us make our site and marketing better. But if you don’t like cookies, that’s cool – you can let us know by clicking the settings button!
Your Cookie Choices
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience.
Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
Cookie Statement
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous.
If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device.
If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.