A Rental Scam in Ft Wayne
21Alive.com recently exposed a rental scam in Ft Wayne. “You’ve heard the phrase “buyer beware,” but what about “renter beware”? There is a scam that keeps surfacing in our area, and it’s something you need to know about. A recent ad on Craigslist listed a property on Crescent Avenue for rent. The person claiming to be the owner supposedly lived in New York and said the keys would be provided once he received a deposit.”
The thing that prevented a couple from falling for a rental scam in Ft is they did a walk around the house initially, and they saw my lockbox on the door. And they knew the key was in the lockbox and so they said, ‘Well, if the key’s there, why would we pay $500 to get the key?’ So they knew they were being scammed. But if it wasn’t for that, they would have sent that money in, they told me,” says property owner Jeff Vaughan.
“It’s gone forever. You’re not going to find it. If you’ve done a wire transfer, a money pack or anything like that, there’s no way to get that money back. And that is the one thing that people, you know, are very, very sorry to hear after they’ve done it, but there’s just no recourse,” adds Marjorie Stephens of the Better Business Bureau. Vaughan says the best thing you can do is check the property records with the assessor’s office or website to make sure you know who actually owns the home.
Even meeting someone in person at the property to be shown around is not guarantee that this is not a scam. Stephens says before renting or buying anything, you can call the Better Business Bureau office to see if the owners have any complaints lodged against them. People there can help you decide what might be a good fit for you.
Unfortunately, a rental scam in Ft Wayne is too common. How do you protect yourself from such scams?
- Don’t pay the first and last in cash. If you write a check, you might have an opportunity to stop payment on the check.
- The rental agent may say they are out of town and want you to wire money.
- They say they’re out of the country. But they have a plan to get the keys into your hands. It might involve a lawyer or an “agent” working on their behalf. Some scammers even create fake keys. Don’t send money to them overseas. If you can’t meet in person, see the apartment, or sign a lease before you pay, keep looking.
- They want a security deposit or first month’s rent before you’ve met or signed a lease
- Craig’s List offers this advice. There should be photos. One way to detect it’s a rental scam in Ft Wayne: the ad should have photos?
- If it is priced lower than the competition, it probably is too good to be true.
- Look for spelling errors. Emails from scammers are often littered with grammatical mistakes and typos. If the email is difficult to read, lengthy, or includes a sad story, then it’s possibly a scam.
- They do a credit check and it doesn’t matter that you have a poor credit history and two previous evictions.
- Zillow advises: Requests for personal or financial information. Do not provide your bank account number or Social Security Number to unknown sources. First verify it is a trusted source and then only provide this information sparingly.
- Call us. We’ve worked with a lot of rental agents and are familiar with the neighborhoods.
JT Integrity Properties is here to help homeowners out of any kind of distressed situation. As investors, we are in business to make a modest profit on any deal, however we can help homeowners out of just about any situation, no matter what! There are no fees, upfront costs, commissions, or anything else. Just the simple honest truth about your home and how we can help you sell it fast to resolve any situation.
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