Massive spike in Centurion property fraud
Police report increases in online property fraud across Centurion. Find out how to avoid falling victim here.
There has been a substantial increase in instances of property fraud in Centurion over the past month.
Eight different cases were reported in two days at the Lyttelton police station.
The station’s spokesperson, Warrant Officer Hero Gumbu, said the cases were all online rental scams.
“The scams all involve actual homes in residential complexes being advertised as ‘for rent’,” said Gumbu.
“Scammers simply ‘copy and paste’ other ads and add their own details to the fake ad. One of the scammers who targeted multiple people went by the name Jazmine.”
According to Gumbu, the scammers operate by preying on people who are urgently looking for accommodation, telling them they need to pay their first month’s rent and deposit quickly as there are other people who are also interested in renting the property.
The scammers pretend to act as an intermediary between the owners and/or residents living in the home. They then give the person looking to rent a cellphone number, supposedly of the owner or resident. The number they give out actually belongs to someone who works alongside the scammer.
This co-scammer, pretending to be the owner, then tells the prospective renter they can’t show them the house right away as they are not in town.
The scammer then calls the person looking to rent a few days later, telling them they need to pay a deposit and the first month’s rent immediately, or they will lose the option to rent to another interested party.
As soon as the deposit is paid, the scammer disappears.
“These fraudsters don’t use their bank account. They ask the person looking to rent to make the money available to them from their own bank account. This is why we cannot trace a bank account, because there aren’t any.”
He advised people looking to rent to be extremely cautious when responding to online rental advertisements.
“Do not ever pay the deposit or rent for a place you haven’t seen for yourself or confirmed that you are dealing with the correct people, such as registered estate agents.”
He called on anyone who suspects they might be dealing with a scammer or who has fallen victim to a fraudulent advertisement to report it to their nearest police station.
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