A rental scheme is gaining popularity, with persons pretending to be estate agents targeting unsuspecting potential renters. Potential renters are asked to pay a rental deposit to secure a property, only to find out too late that the property was never available.
Steve van Wyk, the owner and Principal of Seeff Centurion, says the fraudsters’ strategy involves trawling property websites, copying the information of properties for rent or for sale, and then placing these properties on various websites as available to rent, while posing as estate agents.
“The ‘estate agent’ then informs the potential tenant that there are a number of other people who are also interested in the property, but that the property will only be rented out to the first person who pays the deposit - or, in some cases, both the deposit and the first month’s rent”.
Van Wyk says that a number of tenants then innocently pay the deposit and rent into the bank account of the fraudster, expecting to obtain access to the property on the 1st of the month, only to find that the cell phone number no longer exists and that the property is already occupied. Van Wyk suggests that when a tenant is interested in a property, they phone the local office of the estate agency to establish whether the agent is in fact a registered agent with that particular company.
“The phone numbers of the estate agencies can be obtained via the internet, the offices of the EAAB, The Estate Agency's website, or the local telephone book. Do not rely on any website or phone number that the agent may provide to check details, as these may also be fraudulent”.
Van Wyk says that even though people who get caught in this trap could open a case at the local police station, this process could be a long drawn out and costly affair, and it makes sense to rather take the time to establish upfront whether or not the agent is a fraudster.