His girlfriend got a text from a woman asking if she was the owner of a specific property. When she confirmed she was, the woman told her she had purchased their house due to unpaid property taxes, that she’d paid $1,800 for it, and that if they contacted the tax office and paid that amount they could get it back. She gave her name, linked her Facebook profile, and the account looked legitimate with years of activity behind it. She never asked for money directly, never requested personal information, and didn’t try to push them toward a suspicious payment method. She was polite. She just told them what she said happened and gave them a number to call.
He was at work when all of this came through. His first call was to ask his girlfriend whether she’d shared anything personal, and she said no. His first instinct was that it was a scam, but the behavior didn’t fit the pattern he associated with scams. There was no urgency push, no request for immediate payment, no sketchy Venmo link. That’s what made it harder to read.
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They do have a mortgage on the home and have never missed a payment, which made the whole thing seem even stranger since they don’t fully own the property themselves. They have had a rough financial year and haven’t paid their 2025 property taxes yet, which is the detail that made the story at least partially plausible. He planned to call the actual tax office in the morning to verify everything, but before he could do that he found out the woman had also provided a phone number she said was for the tax office. He told his girlfriend immediately not to call that number and to look up the official contact information herself instead.
The phone number is the tell
Everything about this contact was calibrated to seem reasonable until the phone number appeared. A stranger who texts out of nowhere, volunteers her Facebook profile, never asks for personal information, and presents herself as simply passing along helpful information about a tax situation is performing trustworthiness. The payoff for that performance is the moment when a panicked homeowner calls the number she provided, reaches someone pretending to be a tax office employee, and gets directed toward a payment that goes somewhere other than the actual county.
The Facebook profile with years of activity is consistent with this kind of operation. Scammers running property tax schemes often use real or heavily developed social media profiles specifically because the legitimacy of the account is one of the first things a skeptical person checks. A real-looking profile with history isn’t evidence that someone is trustworthy. It’s a tool designed to clear that first hurdle.
Tax sales in West Virginia and whether any of this could be real
West Virginia does allow counties to sell tax liens and properties with delinquent taxes, and the process is real. Properties can be sold at tax lien auctions for the amount of back taxes owed, and there are redemption periods during which the original owner can pay to reclaim the property. That framework is legitimate and does result in situations where a third party purchases a tax lien on someone’s home.
The problem is that legitimate tax purchasers don’t typically reach out through text messages to inform homeowners of the situation. The official process involves notices from the county, recorded documents, and formal communication through legal channels. A stranger texting his girlfriend to let her know she bought their house and offering a helpful phone number to resolve it is not how that process works. If a tax sale had actually occurred on their property, the county would have records of it and those records would be accessible through official channels, not through a polite text from a woman with a Facebook profile.
Verifying through official channels only
He made the right call by telling his girlfriend not to use the number the woman provided. The only number worth calling is one she finds herself through the county’s official website or a verified government directory, not one that arrived in a text from a stranger. When she calls, she should ask specifically whether there are any delinquent tax liens on the property, whether any tax sale has occurred, and what the official status of their account is.
If the tax office confirms they’re behind on 2025 taxes, that’s a real problem with a real solution through official channels. If the tax office has no record of a sale or a lien, that confirms what this most likely is. Either way, the answer comes from the county, not from the woman who sent the text.
The mortgage piece that matters here
Having a mortgage on the property adds an important layer to this situation. Mortgage lenders have a strong interest in properties they hold liens on, and most mortgage agreements require lenders to be notified of tax delinquencies. Many lenders will pay delinquent property taxes themselves and add the amount to the mortgage balance rather than allow a tax sale to proceed, because a tax sale could extinguish their lien. A property with an active mortgage being sold in a tax sale without any notice to the lender would be unusual and would likely involve a legal challenge from the lender.
That doesn’t mean they should ignore the tax situation if they are behind, but it does mean the scenario the woman described, a completed $1,800 tax sale on a mortgaged property, has elements that don’t add up when held against how these processes actually work.
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