Beware of Okanagan rental property scams | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Beware of Okanagan rental property scams

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OKANAGAN – A recent string of rental property scams have prompted a warning from the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board.

“There have been at least four recent instances where someone has scraped photos and information from other sites and used this information to post bogus property rentals on advertising sites like Kijiji or Craigslist,” Paul Cowhig with the real estate board says in a media release.

According to the release, the victim calls about the rental and the scammer sends a tenancy agreement with a request for a deposit.

The scammer instructs the victim to pick up the keys from the previous renter on a certain date. There is no rental property, so the victim loses the deposit and what they thought would be their new home, Cowhig says.

Local realtors have been warned about the scam and will be checking online rental advertising sites to look for any of their own listings.

Cowhig says in order to avoid falling for a such rental scams, do not forward funds to anyone without verifying the rental in-person, with the landlord.


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