DENVER — A warning is going out to realtors across Colorado to beware of fake clients targeting women working alone.
Larina McClain, managing partner of the noted Madison & Company Properties real estate agency tells FOX31 a mysterious client asked her to show a Cherry Creek property, but didn’t seem genuine.
“He basically had no interest in asking anything about the property. He said, ‘I want to see it and I want to see it tonight,'” McClain said.
McClain, who brought along an associate, says the man exhibited strange body language.
“He didn’t make any eye contact. That was another red flag,” McClain said.
After the man left, McClain researched him online. She was shocked when she found his picture online along with criminal information. Later, women in the real estate office started receiving inappropriate phone calls.
“The conversation would get weirder and weirder, and by the end, he would end with, ‘I’m in this hot tub. Come meet me in your bikini,'” McClain said.
Kelly Moye of the Colorado Association of Realtors and ReMax tells FOX31 all realtors, especially women, need to consider the risks of meeting strangers in secluded or private areas.
“Getting attacked or [being] with someone who’s aggressive and you can’t get out of that situation, that’s kind of scary,” said Moye.
Moye emphasizes that safety guidelines are in place and available to all realtors through the association. She said there is a smartphone app that will notify another user if a realtor does not turn off a timer after a certain amount of time.
Police were made aware of the incidents.
More information about safety for realtors is available online.