Falling into a Scam
Here’s a story for you. The past few weeks I have been apartment hunting on the internet. All of the apartments so far have been mediocre for my price range but less than par for my standards. By this I mean they are all basement apartments, which do not work for a basement snob such as myself, or they are about the size of a closet. Despairingly, I continued searching and it was during the hunt that I came across an ad for an apartment that seemed just too good to be true. As it turns out, it was, and thankfully I am not dumb enough to have not realized it before my money was taken from me.
I clicked on to the ad. The price was $500, which is unheard of for Toronto unless it’s in a ghetto neighborhood or comes equipped with cockroaches. But this place was right downtown near the business district. I scrolled down to see the pics and the apartment was beautiful. It had a giant living room with 12 foot ceilings, a brand new kitchen, leather furniture, large windows and a beautifully tiled bathroom. I excitedly sent the link to my boyfriend and immediately emailed the person to inquire further. Surely, there must be a catch.
The person who went by the name of Tracey emailed me back saying that the place was left by her late father and that she wanted to rent it while she was gone to Africa on a work placement. She made it seem as though the money wasn’t an issue for her, she just wanted to make sure her apartment was well taken care of when she was away. I asked her when I can take a look and she wrote back with no mention of booking an appointment for viewing. About five more emails were exchanged, each one avoiding the topic of me looking at the place before signing a lease. I added the person on MSN to talk more about it and told her how great it seemed but that I really needed to see it before I agree just because the internet can be deceiving.
Finally, she agreed to let me look at the apartment but told me that a lease was not required. She would send me a key to the apartment through the mail, so long as I paid the $150 fee. This was when a red flag went up and I phoned my boyfriend. ‘Why would someone be that trusting to mail me a key to a fully furnished condo when they live in another continent? What if I was sketchy and stole everything?” My boyfriend told me it didn’t seem right and to try to plan something else out to look at it.
I messaged her back saying I didn’t know what that fee was for and maybe a better idea would be to leave a key with her concierge and tell them to expect me to view the apartment. She ignored this option and told me I had to send her $200 first to look at it and then another $800 to pay for first and last months rent. I told her how ridiculous it was to pay money to look at an apartment and that it’s a waste of money if I don’t want the place after all. Her response was that the $200 would be refundable should I choose not to take the place.
By this point, I fully understood that this was a scam. I asked how I could trust my money would be refunded if there was no paperwork involved that stipulated this and if she’s in a completely different country. This was when she told me ‘I had her word’ and that I should decide soon since another renter was on the phone. I told her I thought it was bullshit and thanks for trying to scam me. She got offline right away.
I wonder how many people have actually fallen for this sort of scam. Admittedly, I was in over my head at first and I totally understand how people can look at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. My words of wisdom when it comes to apartment hunting, if it looks too good to be true it probably is. If they ask for money just to view it, you probably won’t get it back. Oh, and if there’s no contract involved it’s probably because they don’t want their name released for being a con artist.
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