Estate vultures

[etpm]

The last few years have seen the death of both of my parents. My older brother is the executor of their estate. It is finally winding down so there may be only a few months before everything is all wound up. This has been a great burden for my brother and I am so thankful he is taking care of things because the job is so hard. Anyway, we were talking today about one of the last things and I mentioned that I have been getting letters from folks who want to give me money now and then they get a bunch of money from the estate. I said that I can see how some folks would take this bad deal because it takes so long for everything to be settled. My brother agreed but he has not received any of these letters. I also keep getting letters and phone calls from folks wanting to buy my woods or my property. I am not polite to the people who call me wanting to buy my wife's and my property. I get so many of these phone calls that I no longer care if I hurt the caller's feelings. I was wondering why my brother gets no letters wanting to buy his part of of the estate yet I get plenty. I owe no money to anybody, nor does my brother, but I get the letters while he doesn't. I wonder if it is because I live in a rural area and my brother does not.

 

[KennyG]

It's just random. These things aren't very sophisticated. They probably pick up names from obituaries or court filings and them sell the list to all the different scammers. You just happened to get picked up instead of your brother.

 

[EddieWalker]

When my brother passed away two years ago, I had his mail forwarded to me and I was amazed at how many letters he gets from people wanting to by part of his land. He had 40 acres, but they always offered to buy 5 or 7 acres. I just through the letters in the garbage.

After a few months, I started getting those letters too. It never happened before, but now I get them just as often as he does, but from different people. They are usually different every time, and the amount of land they are offering to buy is different. Never all of it, just a certain sized parcel for so much money.

I've scratched my head to figure out the connection. How they got my name and address after having my brothers mail forwarded to me. My only guess is that the Post Office is selling my information to them.

 

[bigtiller]

A few decades ago my cousin got suckered into some pyramid scam that would sell stuff you need every day. He devised a plan to sell stuff and get other people under him selling also.

His plan was to reed the wedding and baby announcements and obituaries in the newspaper. He would get the phone book for that town and call them. Most people seen right through the scam but a few people bought from him for a short time and then stopped.

 

[Quaffer]

the Post Office is selling my information to them.

Things are bad enough without that!

 

[ericm979]

Things are bad enough without that!

I don't think the post office sells info.

In a lot of places the info is available from the county. At our new place in Oregon we have gotten a lot of home warranty ads and other similar things marketed to new home owners.

 

[drssg]

I don't think the post office sells info.

In a lot of places the info is available from the county. At our new place in Oregon we have gotten a lot of home warranty ads and other similar things marketed to new home owners.

Our county auditor website provides land ownership details as public record data. I thought that was the same everywhere, but I don't know. The letters that contain possibly valid offers to buy my land go in the garbage, and they don't bother me.

Unless I'm specifically expecting a call, I never answer a phone call from a number that I don't recognize. Most of them don't leave a message. The ones that do are usually recordings that aren't even smart enough to wait for the beep, so I'll get a partial message that doesn't even make sense.

 

[JethroB]

I ge purchase offers also for farm and timberland and our other family farmland. Most seem legitimate from Ag land brokers. Some letters offer stupidly low cash offers outright. I assume they got my name and address from the publicly available tax accessor website. (Qpublic.net).

I also get offers for solar farm companies. What a wonderful view that would be.

 

[paulsharvey]

Well, honestly, I don't see the insult. If the land has recently passed hands by death, there is pretty much an assumption that it is atleast in play, if not actively on the market. As long as it isn't dishonest "we are your brothers business partners, and we want our share"; just chunk the mail, and don't answer the calls.


Edit: I do know people who used to scour the obituaries, and try to buy cars, equipment, ect; and that 'feels' slimy, cause we are talking about a death something like a week ago; but we all know what an estate sale is, and we pick the carcass too. Where I draw the line is trickery/fraud, or playing on the distress of a recent passing

 

[Torvy]

I get the land offers a lot. Land ownership is public record. They just use the tax rolls. The offers are ridiculously low.

Last one I looked at was about 2/3 of what we paid for the land alone 3 years ago. That doesn't include the house and barn at all.