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Real Estate Scams Try To Prey On Potential Student And Other Tenants

According to a warning by Ottawa (Canada) police, an online phishing scam is targeting post-secondary students who are looking for a residential place.

The scam relates to many listings added to websites like one which Alex Yeaman, a university student discovered on Craigslist, unfolding a conodo that is fully furnished and located in the downtown's center for a matchless price.

Yeaman recalled that he was extremely pleased for he felt like having found diamond.

He therefore contacted the house's owner through e-mail and the following day got a queer response which said that the house's owner was in Africa engaged in missionary work, however, the keys could be sent to him through courier provided he wired certain amount of money as security deposit.

But Yeaman realized that the e-mail was nothing but a scam and said that he immediately snapped all connections with the e-mail sender.

However, a lot of others weren't as fast towards identifying the fraud. Police said that numerous Ontarians trusted the scam e-mail and fell victim each year.

Meanwhile Investigator Jeff Smith, who probes Internet scams on behalf of the Kingston Police fraud division, said that he got complaints from a number of individuals who replied to advertisements on Kijiji a well-known website for classified ads. Whig Standard reported this on August 28, 2009. Smith said that he already had four complaints waiting to be solved.

The victims had replied electronically to advertisements that announced that a Kingston apartment sought a tenant.

The fake landlord stated that he had just joined a new assignment outside the country; consequently his apartment was lying vacant which he wished to give out on rent.

There were also some photographs that the probable lessee received showing the apartment from inside.

Furthermore, police are as well cautioning seekers of rented apartments about another phishing scam in Canada's Kingston area, which in a new change to similar deception involves a scammer presenting something on sale that doesn't exist.

Moreover, in similar news, the Better Business Bureau of Chicago (U.S) has been alerting netizens to watch out for a new scam that offers apartments on rent.

Related article: Real Estate Investors Warned of Misleading Spam Mails

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