More victims come forward in Ottawa rental scam
CTV
More people in Ottawa have come forward who say they've fallen victim to a real estate scam, with scammers posing as real estate agents trying to rent real properties.
More people in Ottawa have come forward who say they've fallen victim to a real estate scam, with scammers posing as real estate agents trying to rent real properties.
"It makes you very vigilant, it makes you very untrusting," said Jenna.
Jenna has been staying with a friend for the past few months. She's out thousands of dollars after the rental home she was supposed to move into back in March turned out to be a scam.
"I didn't know what to do," she said. "I was set to move in in about one to two weeks. I had called all the utilities to switch everything over, switch my address, everything had been set up, movers etc. so there was a lot of tears and anger."
The place she found was listed on Facebook Marketplace in Findlay Creek, set up by a scammer using information taken from a real listing.
She went to see it in person then filled out a rental application with the scammer without knowing it and sent the money to a person who was not legitimately renting the property and it's gone.
"They seem to be the middleman," Jenna said. "The scammer pretends to be the prospective renter to the agent and the scammer pretends to be the agent to the prospective renter."
