PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — A Treasure Coast woman said someone put her house up for sale without her knowledge and did it using the popular real estate website Zillow.
Monica Weis, who lives in the PGA Village Verano development, said she has no intention of selling her home and can't understand how this could happen.
Weis said it all started when she noticed her house was getting a lot of attention.
"People were driving by, parking, walking around, taking a look," Weis said.
She found out her home was listed for sale on Zillow and had received 200 views in three days.
"It had no pictures. It had no information about the house, no write-up. The little bit of information that was there was incorrect," Weis said.
She said it took several emails and calls to finally get Zillow to take the listing down, which was online for several days in February.
"They told me I needed to prove that I was the rightful owner," Weis said.
Zillow confirmed that their customer support team did remove the home listing.
She suspects it was all a scam — a plan to cash in on the hot Florida housing market by enticing buyers to put down deposits.
There was no answer when we called the New Jersey number that was left on the listing, which has now been taken down.
Zillow's website has a page warning about scams and fraudulent listings.
In a statement, a Zillow spokesperson said they go to great lengths to monitor activity on the platform and if a listing is found to be fraudulent, then they take steps to remove it as quickly as possible.
However, Weis is worried some prospective buyers who paid deposits may come to her door.
"I feel like people need to know how easy it is for somebody else to put their house for sale on Zillow," Weis said.
A quick online search showed that this sort of thing has happened in other parts of the country.
Homeowners should be aware of these fake listings and caution buyers to be suspicious of sellers who ask for deposits but won't show the house.
Below is the full statement from Zillow regarding the matter:
"Zillow strives to provide a safe online platform, and we go to great lengths to monitor activity and fully inform our users of the possibility of scams and how to protect themselves. Our teams use a number of different tools to prevent inappropriate content from publishing, but if a listing is found to be fraudulent after it’s posted, we take steps to remove it from our site as quickly as possible.
Our Beware of scams and other internet fraud page provides valuable information on how to avoid suspicious activity anywhere online, including looking out for red flags like requests for wire transfers and long-distance inquiries.”