The growing increase in interest rates encourages some people to turn to renting a residence; but we must be vigilant, because fraudsters have a new strategy to trap their victims: houses for rent without the knowledge of the owners.
This is reported by several clients who do business with real estate brokers for the sale of their home. To their great surprise, people show up at their house to rent their residence. They were in fact the victims of a fraud.
“It’s a company that uses our own listings on Centris. They take our photos and our description to use them for the rental. She says she lives in Montreal and that it is a management company that comes to show the building,” explained Pierre-Olivier Simard, real estate broker for Via Capitale.
The fraudster asks the potential tenant to pay a sum of $1500 as a deposit before even going to visit the place.
“They transferred the money. They will knock on doors and think the house is for rent, but eventually it is for sale. As far as my personal pool of registrations is concerned, four frauds have been made in the last month. We are 160 real estate brokers in the region, so we are talking about a fraud that is quite major,” he continued.
Not the only one
Three other real estate agents in the area confirmed having had several similar cases lately.
“At the end of the week, two of my properties picked up on the marketplace as being for rent, while one is sold, not yet notarized, but sold therefore really not for rent. And the other is sold now. There are other brokers who told me about it. Here too at the office, we heard about it, but it was really my first experiences,” said Sonia Lavoie, real estate broker at Via Capitale.
She pointed out that this fraud scheme would have started in the major centers for some time and would now spread more in the regions, according to what she heard.
Vigilance
What to do to avoid being the target of fraudsters?
“Never send a deposit. First, it is not normal to give a deposit to visit a house,” said Ms. Lavoie.
“Before going to visit a house for rent, really check the source of the property and see if the house is not on Centris for sale,” added Mr. Simard.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing more real estate brokers can do than report fake Facebook posts.
“It’s shocking, but it’s not us who are at fault. It’s really those who respond to these ads. I reported to Facebook and immediately she disappeared. But other than that, there’s nothing we can do. It is the person who is defrauded who must file a complaint with the police,” said Hélène Lavoie.
Since this type of fraud is fairly recent, the Saguenay Police Department does not yet have any files to this effect at the investigation office. The police force reiterates the importance of not hesitating to file a complaint in such a situation. Filing a complaint will make it easier to pin down the fraudsters and prevent other people from becoming victims of this fraud.