Rental Scam in Toowoomba
- Rebecca Fogarty
- Jun 2, 2016
- 1 min read
Rental listings are a popular target for scammers and this has been growing in our area.
Recently we were alerted to an issue with one of our own properties being used in these scams.
These criminals have been copying an agent’s ad then readvertising the same property on Gumtree or Facebook. When tenants enquire, the pitch is that they are the owners of the property and are overseas. To view the property, they just need to go to the agents open house but can rent directly through the owner (sometimes for a lower rent). The tenants application is then submitted to the “owners” these owners then send a copy of a lease to be signed to the prospective tenants.
The first two weeks rent and Bond is paid to the “owners” account – generally via Western Union.
The new tenants then turn up at the real estate agency to collect the keys and are faced with the reality that they have been scammed.
Toowoomba Police have advised us that transferring money through Western Union should be a red flag for any transactions as it can not be traced.
For more information please see the blog from realestate.com.au
留言