Sixth Sense - Are You Being Scammed?

Would you know how to detect a fraudulent rental advertisement?

On Sept 16, A.J. Lezak, Allison Marinelli, Erica Johnson and I teamed up in an effort to alert people of the emerging scam.

I have been looking for an apartment for months and have come across many less than credible characters when responding to online ads. Because of this, I have come to develop a sixth sense when it comes to detecting fake ads. My team and I decided that we needed to find one of these ads on Kijiji so we could correspond with the scammer and confirm the existence of these scams. We also wondered what statistics there are out there regarding online rental scams. 

It only took one day to find a suspicious looking ad. I was looking for an apartment around Osborne Village or Downtown, one that allows pets, has hardwood floors, and one that is in between $650 and $900.  In my experience the fake ads are always the ‘too good to be true’ ones. The ad I expressed interest in was titled, “$650 / 1br - Immaculate & spacious One bedroom apartment.”  I emailed the contact address for further details under the pseudonym Nicole. 

On September 22, using my sixth sense, we received a response from “Isaac Lagerback” stating that Nicole was the successful tenant, and that he “thanks almighty God that he found someone like Nicole for his property,” and that he “want (sic) Nicole to sticks (sic) on her words as a good responsible and trustworthy person that he can trust with all his hearts (sic).”  All that we had to do to secure the apartment was send $350 for the damage deposit and $650 for the first month's rent to 8 Northey Street, Limehouse, E14 8BT, London, England, United Kingdom, as soon as Nicole was ready to move in. Once the money was wired, he would courier the keys to the address which Nicole presently lived at so that she could go to her new apartment at 938 Garfield St N and immediately move in.

We corresponded with him over a span of three days. He was very eager to get me to send him my personal information and keen to get down to business. From research, my team knew that at the location of this supposed apartment for rent sat a house, so we asked “Isaac” what the neighbours were like and what floor the apartment. I can see why some people get suckered into the scam as “Isaac” gave answers that seemed legitimate. But for super sleuths like us, he was no match. When we stopped correspondence, “Isaac” was eager to find out why I was so silent, but after a few days of not responding, he got the hint and my team had all the information we needed.

Now you too can detect fraudulent ads by doing what I did, just read what crosses my mind as I look at apartments as there are many sure signs that you have been scammed contained in this response. 

1) How can this 2 bedroom on Wellington Crescent be only $750 a month? This is too good to be true. 

2) Wow, I can move in right away? Yes you can . . . Just as soon as you provide a ton on personal information. Then just send $1200 to a suspicious address in the UK and they will mail you the keys. 

3) This guy has terrible spelling.

4) He is referencing God way too much.

5) Sure, I believe you that you are out of town for work. I wasn't born yesterday.

6) There is no way I am going to move into an apartment without looking at it. What's that? I can go look at the exterior? Gee, thanks a lot mister.

As for statistics on online rental scams, what surprised us in our research was how hard it was to get statistics on rental scams in Winnipeg.  We got some advice, but no one that we contacted had any numerical data.  Also, rental scams are not listed on many scam websites. 

So if you encounter any of these in your search for an apartment, trust your intuition and newly developed sixth sense and scram. You are being scammed. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. Use your sixth sense.