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A friend of ours was looking to relocate from her apartment in the downtown Pasadena area to more of a neighborhood setting. She was hoping to find a 2 bedroom, 1 bath with a yard and the white picket fence. More of an established idyllic setting than the come and go transient lifestyle that can be associated with apartment life can bring. Like many people she began her search on one of the local, albeit national web sites that offers everything from garage sales to finding your perfect mate, even if only for 15 minutes.

She found the perfect house. The only thing better than the house was the rent which seemed a bargain at only $1400/month. She replied to the email, informing the owner or what she thought was the owner of her intentions to see the property. A day or two later she received a reply. The response which seemed a little atypical, opened with the supposed owner telling her his age, that he is happily married and about his lovely wife. Now who wouldn’t want to rent from a guy like that? He even went on to say that he understood how things happen sometimes, so if you are a few days late on the rent, no problem. He currently lives in Greece, so the transaction would have to be consummated by mail. RED ALERT – if no one is available to meet you or the owner has not employed a management company or property manager, be very cautious. He went on to say that if you decide to ever visit Greece, despite the outcome of the house, he was there to help. What a guy!

Later that day another email was received from the purported owner of the house. It continued with further instructions. Since he was not there, he had made arrangements with a third party company to deliver the contract and the keys and that she would have a 5 day period to change her mind. After the intermediary received the rental check, the keys would be delivered.

Walks Like a Duck

Suspicions began to abound. A property profile was pulled on the subject property in order to determine who the real owner actually was. It did not match the name on the previous emails. The name of the actual owner was entered into a Google search. The results indicated that a property matching the same address was in fact for rent but quite a bit higher ($2000/month) than the rent indicated on the suspicious ad. A call was placed to the individual who had placed the correct ad. The property profile also indicated that he owned another property in the area.

Imagine his surprise when he was told his house was for rent by someone else. He said he had recently been to the property and had received some rental inquiries, but had not noticed any suspicious activity. Furthermore he was very thankful for the information alerting him to the potential problem.

Warning Signs

If you are looking to conduct business over the internet be cautious of the following:

1. Correspondence through email only – no phone numbers provided or lack of communication or direct responses to any of your questions
2. Below market pricing – someone committing fraud hopes to make a deal quickly and secure your money. Price is usually an incentive
3. Third party involvement – the lack of a face to face meeting and dealing through an intermediary may be a clue that someone is looking to cheat you
4. Overt generosity- con men may appear easy to do business with and may also make compelling offers of assistance or leniency

Before you send someone a check remember these two words, Buyer Beware. Great advice in today’s online marketplace.

Tags: online fraud, real estate fraud, real estate scam