Renting a home? How to tell if it's a scam or legit
You Ask. We Investigate.
Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- A warning for those who rent or are looking to rent a home. It comes after a viewer contacted Action News wondering if a listing was legitimate.
It all started on craigslist.com. It was an offer too good to be true.
"You're looking at a beautiful 2,522 square feet of living space," says Raymonda Chahayed Dagher with Appleton Properties, as she shows the home listed on the website.
All this for only $700 a month. A listing on craigslist and several emails had one woman thinking she was communicating with a couple who was "busy with my mother at the hospital" as she battles breast cancer. The couple even emails an application telling the Las Vegas woman their "mind feels safe handing it over to you." She gets the first month free, but needs to first send $1,400 through Money Gram in order to get the keys.
"The phone number that they gave her. They told her that they live in Texas right now, but it's actually a land line in New York, New York," says Dagher.
She is the office manager for the company that actually owns the house. The jig is up. The ad is a scam.
Whether the red flags are bad grammar or a "sob story", it's best to prevent yourself from ever becoming a victim because once you do, the chances of you ever seeing your money again are less than slim.
"It's really hard for our law enforcement to go after those bad actors, those scammers that are overseas or in another country," says Elisabeth Daniels with the Nevada Fight Fraud Task Force.
Here in Las Vegas, ever since we hit the foreclosure crisis.
"It's become kind of a breeding ground for crime and for things like that. Scams. Unfortunately," says Dagher.
Scams that could be caught early on if potential renters do their homework first.
For more on the red flags that you can look out for when avoiding scams, and where to go if it's already too late click here.
This site uses Facebook comments to make it easier for you to contribute. If you see a comment you would like to flag for spam or abuse, click the "x" in the upper right of it. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use.