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The attempt appears to have been conducted as follows:

• The vendor appointed an estate agent to sell their property. The authorised estate agents advertised it through their normal channels, including property sales websites.
• The rogue 'estate agent' copied the advertisement and posted it to a classified ads website, changing it to reflect themselves as the estate agents.
• The potential purchaser saw the property on the classified ads website and contacted the rogue 'estate agent' to arrange a viewing believing they were dealing the authorised estate agent.
• The rogue 'estate agent' contacted the authorised estate agent to arrange a viewing, saying they had a “client” interested in buying.
• The potential purchaser viewed the house with the rogue 'estate agent' believing that they were dealing with the estate agent. The authorised estate agent believed that the rogue 'estate agent' was viewing the property with their 'client'.
• The potential purchaser then made an offer to the rogue “estate agent” still believing they were dealing with the authorised estate agent. The rogue 'estate agent' told the potential purchaser that the offer had been accepted by the vendor (without contacting the authorised estate agent or the vendor).
• The rogue 'estate agent' then sought a booking deposit from both the potential purchaser and their solicitor. The solicitor acting for the potential purchaser became suspicious and reported the matter to An Garda Síochána and to the Property Services Regulatory Authority.

Precautions

Solicitors should take note of this matter and be wary of any purchases through estate agents they are not familiar with or where they are aware that the purchase originated outside of the normal channels, e.g. non-property sales website.