Security Awareness
At Lifull Connect Group we are committed to security and sharing ads of the best possible quality. We leave you some small security tips that we hope will be useful to you before and after any transaction.
1) Suspicious Ads
Suspicious ads usually follow the same pattern. Before accepting any offer, read these tips carefully.
We recommend you take extreme precautions in cases where:
- The prices of the offer are excessively cheap, whether for sale or rent. Common sense is your best ally, do not trust offers that are too good to be true.
- The advertiser tells you that he is outside the city or country and that the entire transaction must be carried out via email or chat. He may tell you that he cannot show you the property now but that he will send you the keys when the payment is completed.
- No additional images available other than those already posted.
- The advertiser is in too much of a hurry to do business.
- The advertiser is evasive when showing copies of updated documents.
- The data is inconsistent, and no one answers the phones published in the ad.
- The advertiser requests payment in advance, sometimes without signing any type of document or visiting the advertised property or car. We recommend that you request to see the property you are acquiring or leasing before anticipating any payment.
- The advertiser requests payments through platforms such as Western Union or Moneygram. Be careful if the advertiser facilitates offers through any of these agencies and make sure that the seller is trustworthy.
- Regarding job offers, the job is in another country and the advertiser requests an advance to manage or process some documents.
2) I have been scammed
If you have been the victim of a scam, we give you the following tips to help you find the culprit:
- Save the images of everything that happened (URLs, chats, copy of the ad, proof of payment, documents that you may have exchanged, etc).
- Notify the local authorities of the facts as soon as possible and send the information referred above. Depending on the country, the competent authority will vary (police, administration of justice, etc.). Sometimes, the authorities may even offer advice for this type of online fraud.
- Report the scam on the source portal where the ad is published. Sometimes it may be a third party, outside Lifull Connect Group.
3) How do I report a suspicious ad to Lifull Connect Group?
On some of our websites you can report an ad directly through the “report” button that you will find at the bottom of each ad on the results page. We attach an image for better reference:
In other cases, if the report button is not available, you can access https://www.lifullconnect.com/contact-us/.
First, we will ask you to identify the brand and the country from which you have accessed the service. After selecting the brand and country, you must select the option “I want to report an ad or inappropriate content.”
It is important that you keep in mind that:
If you report an ad in one of our content aggregators (Trovit, Mitula, Nestoria, Nuroa, Fashiola) the ad has not been published on our website so we do not have additional information available. Therefore, we can only remove the advertisement on our web pages.
If the ad comes from a portal other than from Lifull Connect Group and we are only sharing the ad, you must address the main property portal to ensure the total deletion of the ad.
- The more details you provide us, the more easily we can validate the veracity of your suspicions and act accordingly. If you only tell us that something is false but do not tell us based on what you suspect, it is more difficult for us to verify it.
- for technical reasons, from the time we receive your email, attend to your request and delete the ad, it may take up to 24 hours for it to disappear from our search engine.
If you wish to buy or rent a property
- Ask questions that allow you to know a little more about the published property. Inquire about the state of the property and request more photos to confirm the information you already have.
- Do not share your personal data without first verifying the recipient, such as your home address or place of employment. Limit your personal information. Do not provide additional information such as account or credit card numbers. Avoid giving details of your personal finances such as bank statements to unknown people.
- Contact the seller, do not contact the advertiser only by email. Establish telephone communication, avoid negotiating only by phone before meeting with the advertiser. It is convenient to always have its landline phone.
- Meet in a public place. Always choose crowded places, preferably during the day.
- Don’t go alone to appointments, let someone know where you’ll be. Provide the information of the person with whom you will meet.
- Research, check the range of prices for similar properties. Be cautious about very cheap offers, especially if you are in a hurry to do business.
- Gather information before negotiating. It is advisable to reach an agreement to be able to see the property and inspect it before making the purchase. Before closing the transaction, make sure that the property meets your expectations. This way you will avoid possible inconveniences.
- Do not send or deliver money in advance as a guarantee, without verifying the recipient’s information. There have been cases in which after making the payment, all traces of the seller disappear.
- Be wary of salespeople who can’t never talk on the phone for whatever reason.
If you sell or rent a property
- Use images, be descriptive and precise in the property information you provide.
- Be cautious, preferably do not publish phone numbers that give indications of your place of work. If the contact number is your home address, be cautious about sharing that information.
- Answer questions and enquiries that those interested in your offer may have, either by phone or by email.< /eng>
- Be wary of buyers who can’t never talk on the phone for whatever reason.
- Avoid doing business with non-local people, do not accept offers from contacts who cannot meet you in person. Do not accept checks from foreign banks, do not use payment systems that cannot guarantee transactions with strangers.
- Meet in public places. If you need to be in a specific place, avoid being alone. If you are showing your house, schedule the visits for a specific time and day. Let your neighbors know that you will have visitors at your house.
- Negotiate, a buyer may be willing to make a counter offer.
- Be careful, preferably do not accept personal checks. Make all the details of the transaction, payment conditions and timeframes clear from the beginning, to avoid misunderstandings.
- Delete the ad, whenever the property is sold, to avoid receiving further requests about it.