I’m sure you have been reading about the lack of affordable housing in Toronto and the GTA recently.
Unfortunately, this brings out the worst in human nature - as scammers will be looking for victims.
This past week I have come across a couple of them. Here are some tips to avoid scams and look for red flags if you are considering renting….this is particularly for Facebook Marketplace. Please pass this information along to any friends or family that are looking for rentals in the GTA!
The rental price is too good to be true: This week I’ve come across a 2 one bedroom private apartments for rent that are renovated for $900. One of these was a scammer, who had copied one of my listings, and was advertising it on Facebook; another one was advertising it on a student rental group for York University. 1 bedroom private apartments for rent are far more than $900 in the GTA.
There's an elaborate story: about why they can’t meet you to show the apartment
The won't allow a phone call: legitimate landlords want to meet good tenants, if someone refuses to call you or give out their number this is a big red flag
They protest too much: take a look at the snapshot of a messenger conversation. I had with one of these lowlifes yesterday. They sent me an address that didn’t exist. When I called him out on it, they flamed out in the following conversation:
They want money up front before you see the place - this, of course is their end game
Thier Facebook profile is brand new yeah, because probably they just created it to put up a fake ad
𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 take a look at that good “Christian” woman’s name, now take a look at the Facebook URL… so the name and photo are probably stolen from somebody else’s profile:
Finally, the address is not owned by the person on the ad As realtors, we have access to land registry to look up owners names.
Hopefully this will help people avoid scammers!!!
