The Seized Property Scam in Colombia: Fake SAE Officials Selling “Bargain” Homes

If someone has offered you a seized property in Colombia at a bargain price, stop before you pay anything. Colombia’s Sociedad de Activos Especiales (SAE), the state company that manages assets seized by the courts, is warning that people posing as its officials or as intermediaries are offering its properties for sale or rent, and asking for a “separación” or “reserva” payment into a personal bank account. The SAE’s own position is simple: its processes are free, they need no middlemen, and nobody is authorised to charge you to take part.

I’m Gio, the Medellín Consultant. I’ve spent more than ten years buying, building and renovating here, and this is one of the cleanest scams to avoid once you know the rules. Here’s how it works and how to check any listing in a few minutes.

What the SAE actually is

When Colombian courts seize assets linked to crime (houses, apartments, farms, vehicles, businesses), the SAE manages them until they are returned, used by the state or sold. Some of those properties do reach the market, and some of them can be good value. That’s exactly why the scam works: the bargain is plausible.

The real sales happen through official channels only: the SAE’s website, saesas.gov.co, and its public auctions and sale processes. Not through a WhatsApp contact, a social media ad or a “friend inside the agency”.

How the seized property scam works

The pattern reported this month (Infobae, 16 October 2026, and Vivir en El Poblado, 18 October 2026) is consistent:

1. 1.Someone presents themselves as an SAE official, or as an intermediary with access to SAE properties.
2. 2.They offer a property for sale or rent well below the market price, often with photos and convincing paperwork.
3. 3.They create urgency: other buyers are interested, the price is only held for a few days.
4. 4.They ask for a reservation or separation payment to “hold” the property, into a personal bank account.
5. 5.The money disappears, and so does the contact.

The red flags

• →Any payment requested into a personal account. The SAE doesn’t take reservation payments into individuals’ accounts.
• →Anyone charging a fee to get you into an SAE process. The SAE says its procedures are free and need no intermediaries.
• →A price far below the area’s real sale prices per m². Check what comparable units actually sell for in the property guide.
• →Pressure to pay before you’ve seen the title.

How to check a listing yourself

1. 1.Go to the SAE’s official website yourself (type the address; don’t click links you were sent) and look for the property in its published sale processes.
2. 2.Ask for the property’s registration number (matrícula inmobiliaria) and pull the certificado de tradición y libertad. It shows who owns the property and any legal measures on it.
3. 3.Never pay anything until the seller, the title and the process have been verified independently.
4. 4.If you’ve already paid, report it to the police and your bank immediately, and contact the SAE through its official channels.

The bigger lesson for buying in Colombia

This scam is a sharp version of a rule that applies to every property purchase here: never send money before the title and the seller are checked, and never send a deposit to a personal account. Buying property in Colombia is safe and well established when the sequence is right, and expensive when it isn’t. I walk through the full sequence in Buying Property in Medellín, and how to move the money properly in Bringing Money into Colombia.