Local realtors warn people looking to rent housing locally to be on the lookout for a scam that’s made its way to Chatham-Kent.
Scammers are pulling home information and photographs off MLS (multiple listing service) listings and posting the information in ads for home rentals.
And the rental prices sound too good to be true. That’s because they are.
David Smith, a sales representative with Royal LePage Peifer Realty, said he managed to contact someone via text message who was running the scam on a south Chatham home.
“Basically, he stole the information off MLS, got pictures of the inside and outside of the house and offered a $360,000 house for rent for $800, including utilities,” he said. “You’d have to be an idiot to believe that would be possible.”
Smith said the rent on a house of that size in Chatham would be more like $2,000 a month, not $800.
Plus, the person who put up the bogus rental information wouldn’t let anyone see the house firsthand.
“You couldn’t see the house because he was out of town, he said,” according to Smith. “If you wired money to him, you had first crack. It was just a fake ad.”
As further enticement, the person said he would leave the home furnished as well.
“Double-car garage, all the furniture, all the appliances for $800 a month. It that too good to be true? Yes,” he said.
Kristen Nead, a broker at Royal LePage Peifer Realty, said scammers targeted one of her listings as well.
“What this person is doing is using the address and all the information, but they used different pictures, from I don’t know what house,” she explained.
Nead said a woman reached out to her about the home after being contacted online by the scammer.
“The girl who had contacted me said she put a post on Kijiji saying she was looking for a rental. She was contacted and the person said he had a house for sale and said if he found a tenant, he’d rent it and take it off the market,” Nead said.
She added the scammer sent the woman a rental agreement. Of course, the woman couldn’t meet the man face to face.
“He was texting; was available by phone. He said he’d relocated to California with his family and had to leave right away,” Nead said. “If they would sign the lease agreement, he told her he’d courier the keys. The first and last (month’s rent) is always the deposit you pay. That’s the scam.””
But the woman instead thought something was fishy, and contacted Nead.
“She sent me all the contact information and even sent me a copy of the lease and the pictures she sent her. I contacted the police,” she said.
Nead said the house is listed at $250,000, and the asking rental price by the scammer was $1,600 a month.
“It was too good to be true, the rental rate he was offering,” she said.
But the scammers keep trying, as the demand for rental homes in Chatham-Kent is high.
“Because there is such a demand for rentals in town, sometimes someone is enticed by this,” she said. “It’s a nice house in a nice neighbourhood and you’re having a hard time finding a rental to begin with.”
This scam certainly isn’t unique to Chatham-Kent. Windsor police have warned residents there to beware of rental scams as well.
Smith said scams have been run for years on property such as automobiles and boats, where someone wants you to send money in advance without seeing what you are paying for. This is just an extension of that scam to involve real estate.
For more information on the rental scam visit the website for the Canadian Fraud Centre:
http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/fraud-escroquerie/rent-location-eng.htm
