A Los Angeles resident was arrested final week for allegedly orchestrating a rental rip-off that netted her over $200,000 from unsuspecting victims, the Los Angeles Occasions reported.
Surong Li, 29, of Irvine, California, allegedly posed as a property supervisor and entered into lease agreements with renters for properties she didn’t legitimately symbolize. To hold out the scheme, Li both fabricated the existence of rental properties completely or did not switch funds to the real property house owners, in keeping with legislation enforcement.
Li is going through a number of fees, together with grand theft, possession of counterfeit identification, and theft by false pretense.
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Sadly, such scams should not unusual.
In June, Jonathan Daugherty, a realtor in Jacksonville, Florida, discovered duplicates of his properties on housing boards on websites like Craigslist and Fb, News4Jax reported.
The fraudsters lured hopeful candidates and charged utility charges and deposits as much as $500, regardless of having no precise ties to the properties. Daugherty alerted the police and took crucial precautions, akin to putting indicators on the property to warn renters towards partaking with random people, and that there’s “just one means” to lease the property.
Easy methods to keep away from a property rip-off
To safeguard towards such scams, the Federal Commerce Fee recommends a number of methods together with:
- Inspecting properties in particular person or nearly
- Verifying rental brokers’ IDs
- Checking tax evaluation web sites for personal landlords
- Staying cautious of unusually low rental costs
- Refraining from sharing private or monetary info
- Avoiding sure fee strategies akin to present playing cards and cryptocurrency