A real agency's name, logo and registry number can be copied. Seven checks that tell a genuine agent from a copy before any money moves.
A genuine agency exists, has an office, a registry entry and a licence. A cloned agency borrows all of that. The scammer copies the website, the logo, the team page and sometimes the company details, and registers a look-alike domain. You see a convincing firm; the firm never wrote to you. This is a general description of a pattern that trade bodies and regulators in several countries have warned about, not a report on any named company. It is not legal advice.
How the copy works
- A look-alike domain: one letter changed, a hyphen added, or the same name under another ending. The email address uses the same domain, so replies look consistent.
- A copied site: texts, photos of the office and team, and listings taken from the real agency, with new contact details.
- Borrowed registry details. In a warning about a cloned property firm, a UK regulator described scammers using a genuine company's name, address and company number. A registry number on the site therefore proves nothing on its own.
- A hijacked shell. Trade press has described criminals using a dormant registered company with a similar name, and even joining listing portals, to look established.
- A fake profile. A named person with a professional photo, a title and a social media page, reachable only by a messaging app, who cannot or will not speak by phone from an office line.
Seven checks before you pay or send documents
1. Get three facts in writing: the legal name, the registry number and, where the country licenses agents, the licence number. 2. Look the company up yourself in the official register of its country. Many EU business registers are reachable through the European e-Justice portal. Do not use a link from the message. Compare the registered address, the status (active, not dissolved) and who is listed as responsible. 3. Take the official website from the register, the licensing body or the firm's entry there, not from the email. Compare it with the sender's domain character by character, including the ending. 4. Look at the domain registration date in a lookup such as ICANN lookup. It is a weak signal in both directions: a domain created last month for a firm that claims twenty years is suspicious, but an old domain does not prove honesty, and some country-code domains keep their own registries. 5. Call the registered office on the number from the register or the licensing body, not the number on the site you were sent. Ask whether this person works there and whether this listing is theirs. Write down who answered. 6. Check the payment account. The account holder must be the company on the contract, or a lawyer's, notary's or regulated escrow account that you chose and confirmed by phone. A personal account, another country than the property and "a partner's" account are all stop signs. See currency and payment for overseas buyers. 7. Check the listing, not just the agent. The same photos on several sites at different prices, or an address that does not exist, means the listing is a bait whoever the agent is.
Messaging-app-only agents
A professional can use a messaging app, but a legitimate agency can also receive your call at an office and send a message from a company address. Be careful when the agent refuses a phone or video call, never shares an office address, pushes the conversation to a new app, sends documents only as photos, or asks you to pay "to hold" the property before anyone has seen it. Video calls can be staged, so they never replace steps 2 and 5.
Portals and badges are not proof
A listing on a large portal, a logo of a professional body or a verified-looking badge can be copied or obtained by a shell company. Use them as a start and finish with the official register.
If you have already sent money
Ask your bank for a recall immediately, keep all messages and receipts, and report to the police in the country where you live and, if you can, in the country of the property. Report the fake site to the hosting provider and the real agency whose identity was used, since they may be able to take it down. Do not pay "recovery" firms that contact you afterwards.
More schemes are described in property scams abroad: the most common schemes. On who a genuine agent works for, see who pays the estate agent abroad, and on lawyers pushed on you by an agent, lawyer recommended by the agent or developer.
How we help
D.H. Realting is an independent Warsaw-based consultant. We check local lawyers and agents before introducing them, so the first call you take is with someone verified in the official register.