Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Real Estate Scam Averted

Arcadia Police were alerted to a potential real estate scam and theft of money yesterday. The potential client/victim looked a little deeper into a property listed for rent on the Internet before handing over the money to the suspect. The victim found the actual real estate agent responsible for the property and learned that the Internet ad was fictitious. It appears that the suspect falsified an ad for a legitimate property for sale/rent and attempted to rent/lease the property to an unsuspecting victim. The suspect would have collected a cash payment from the victim prior to the move-in leaving the victim holding a loss and bogus agreement.

This type of scam has been in the news of late and folks looking for property to rent, buy or lease should be very sure of the legitimacy before handing over any form of payment. Read additional stories HERE and HERE.

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