Pruitt Warns of Fraudulent Websites

Attorney General Pruitt Issues Consumer Alert on Realtor Complaint Website Scam

OKLAHOMA CITY — Attorney General Scott Pruitt Wednesday issued a warning for Oklahoma consumers and realtors to beware of a fraudulent realtor complaint website.

The website, Realtor-complaints.com, has used the REALTOR registered trademark to promote the website and its reviews.

The National Association of Realtors is investigating the website for fraudulent information that includes a string of falsified reviews. Every rating for the contractor, roofer or realtor is listed as a bad review. In order to remove the complaints, the site asks the professional to pay up to $100 to an account in the Bahamas.

“Oklahoma consumers need to be wary of information provided on a website unless they are familiar with the company,” General Pruitt said. “We urge any professionals who have been a victim of this scam to contact our Public Protection Unit.”

The National Association of Realtors provides the following tips to avoid “reputation defamation:”
· Make sure all of your profiles (on social media sites, at REALTOR.com, and so on) are complete, up to date, and consistent;
· Be proactive in asking customers for reviews in legitimate forums;
· Search via search engines for your name and your company’s name;
· Sign up for alerts so that you’re notified when your name appears in a search. Also set up alerts for variations of your name, your company name and other keywords;
· Ask your customers where they’ve gone to search for information about real estate and other professionals;
· Correct errors quickly. Contact the website and don’t be tempted to pay to have information removed.

To report suspected fraud or scams, contact the AG’s Public Protection Unit at (405) 521-2029, (918) 581-2885 or PublicProtection@oag.ok.gov as well as local law enforcement. For more information about this scam, go online to www.realtor.org.

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