In 2017, the Peterborough Examiner reported a local lawyer had discovered his home was being listed as available for rent on Mitula, a website operated by a digital classified ad company based in Spain, and Estates in Canada, that allows people to buy and sell real estate.
Det. Const. Brad McBurney with the Guelph Police Service’s Fraud Unit says this type of scam has been going on for quite some time.
“And it’s very difficult for anyone to really regulate or stop them,” he adds.
McBurney says the first step to protecting yourself against becoming a victim of a scam like this is to do your homework when looking for a new place to rent or buy.
“Never, never rent sight unseen. Make sure that you’re going to the location, speaking with someone and doing your research, whether it be Google the name of the real estate agent or the landlord,” he says.
“Make sure you’re actually doing your due diligence and contacting these people to make sure that what you’re seeing is actually legitimate.”
McBurney adds that prospective renters should avoid dealing in cash or other untraceable forms of payment, such as Bitcoin.
Caldwell says another thing to keep in mind is to remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
“Unfortunately, (the scam) targets people that are desperately trying to find apartments within a tight budget,” she says.
McBurney says if you believe you have become a victim of this type of scam, call police right away.
“Contact us and file a report that you have been scammed or that you have sent money, and try to just obtain and maintain any type of evidence you have, whether it’s phone numbers, contacts, that kind of stuff,” he says.
He adds that if you still have the link to the listing, pass that along to police as well as it can help track down who is behind the scam.
“The URL is very key for police to know right away,” he says.
“Often times there will actually be a reference number or a post ID — those are very important for investigators to have so we can go back to the organizations that house those websites and try to determine who created that website or who was in charge of that ad.”
