Buyer Beware: Realtor Targeted By Aggressive Advertising Scam

A Realtor who lives in Highland Park recently learned the hard way that you should always do your due diligence before buying advertising. This Realtor, whose name we will not reveal to save her the embarrassment, went to her hometown’s police department last week to report a theft.

In February, the Realtor began receiving several “aggressive” phone calls from a company trying to sell her ads in the directories for three Dallas-area country clubs: Bent Tree, Gleneagles, and a third undisclosed club. After several such calls, the Realtor finally agreed to a $600 package, which was charged to her American Express card on Feb. 27.

The Realtor later called a friend who belongs to Bent Tree and asked to see the club’s directory. She’s probably wishing she’d asked for that before handing over her credit card number, because the friend informed the Realtor that Bent Tree has no such directory, according to the police report. The Realtor soon found out that the same is true of the other two clubs; no one at any of the three clubs knew anything about the advertising she’d purchased.

The Realtor has since hired an attorney and is going through the fraud process with American Express. Meanwhile, she’s still getting phone calls from companies with various names, all of which are trying to sell her the same kind of directory ads. She even received at least one such call last Friday – the day she explained all of this to the Highland Park police.