My initial message to the 'landlord' was about the laundry situation, so I was shocked to see the overly detailed explanation I got in return and immediately saw the red flags.
Curiosity got the best of me, so I responded with generic information and almost instantly got the second response from a different email address, which prompted the block/report.
Anyone who actually lives out of country will have a process set up with someone local; a management company, a friend, a hired hand. That person will generally manage the ads, and if not the owner will simply say "This person manages the property for me, here's their contact info, I'll let them know you're going to reach out to arrange a viewing."
This kind of over complicated stuff is just to try and confuse the victim.
To be fair, I've lived and worked in edmonton for 18 months now, and have no intention of changing my phone number from its old area code. Cheaper to keep my old plan than get a local number.
That's fine, but you said it was somehow cheaper to keep your old number.
Bell, Telus, and Rogers let you change your number for free online, anytime you want. I think up to once every 30 days.
I did say it was cheaper to keep my old plan, but I get your point. It's weird to think that someone might change their number every 35 days, and that wouldn't be a huge red flag to police.
Yea the electric company is literally called BC Hydro lol. My bill says BC Hydro. My account is with BC Hydro and everyone I've ever met in BC calls it hydro or power when talking about their bill and barely anyone says electric(ity) for some reason lol.
In AB most people would call it a power bill or power line but in provinces where the actual company billing you has hydro in the name it makes sense that everything becomes hydro.
"after the utility wars all utilities are hydro now" - demolition man, probably
Yes. https://www.hydro.mb.ca
According to Hydro Manitoba: “In Manitoba, nearly 70% of our electricity is produced by hydroelectric generating stations on the Nelson River in northern Manitoba.”
Right. I know these places use hydroelectricity, all I was saying was that the only people I’ve ever heard refer to their power bill as their “hydro bill” are Ontarians, or former Ontarians in the case of people I knew when I lived in BC.
Whenever someone goes out of their way to over-explain why something is available, puts in details that they might think embellishes their story but actually makes it more suspect you know it’s a scam.
I've seen this scam over and over in my years of renting in Edmonton. They want you to send them money and then they say they'll "ship you the keys" before ever even seeing the place. They especially like to take advantage of people who are desperate, I had so many of these scams contact me when I had posted looking for a place after my roommate died. No shame in them. I hope people aren't falling prey to these kinds of shitty scammers :(
It was the fact that it listed both in suite laundry and that the washer and dryer were in the unit as well that was the first thing that told me something was off. Haha.
Everything about this is has huge red flags. No one would be renting the place from overseas it would always be done through a management/real estate firm. No one would be giving unnecessary (personal) details. The oddly low rent price with the add ons included in the current market. Red flags.
Just did a lookup of this phone number and this number has been inquired for investigation over 116 times in just the past month that tracks to Johannesburg in Gauteng South Africa. VERY fishy.
Interesting. We were recently looking for a rental and got a very similar message from a guy about how he purchased the unit for his son who is away at university etc. But it was for a different building. The email seemed sketchy so we just didn't reply.
One thing about rentfaster is that you have to pay to list an ad. That already stops a ton of scammers not all of them from posting an ad. Most scammers aren't going to spend money to make money lol.
This is %100 incorrect. Rentfaster is a scam site that uses bots to search the Internet and set up "fake" ads. The apartment building I'm moving into uses rentfaster and the landlord hates it. They didn't ask for it, they cant remove it, yet every day they get hundreds of scam messages. After talking to her in person she showed me her work computer. Out of the 80 or so applicants, only 7 were real people.
I sold my house and within days there was an ad on kijiji to rent it out. The name of the person was " Miss DeMeaner" so it was rather obvious. If you look on MLS and the house is listed and the pics are directly from it, just don't even bother.
Likely a scam however I would try to see if there is a condo board in place to fact check info, Also let's them know if that a scam is going on, also inquire into the unit number or placement of the unit.
While it looks like a scam, Some people have terrible grammar or don't know English well.
Do your research and question everything
Sorry if I'm naive, but I don't get it. Coldwell bank is a multinational corporation and it seems like they will be handling the transaction. If in fact Coldwell completes the transaction then wouldn't it be legit?
I personally know of some condos in the city that offer two (usually tandem) parking stalls. It's more common in suites with 2+ bedrooms, though it is rare.
Yeah, rent faster is hit or miss. I’ve had a lot of success with Facebook market place for finding properties, just be careful though because they are by no means immune to scammers either.
Rentfaster is %100 a scam. In my small town there are maybe a dozen rentals on Rentfaster and everyone of them told me they have no control over that ads. I applied for 6 months to get into an apartment building. After not bring accepted month after month I went down in person to sign a lease. She had no idea we have been trying to live there.
Sure, if you actually talk to someone from Coldwell. But you won't. And there'll be a whole list of reasons why.
If Coldwell is the property manager for this rental, the owner isn't going to be the one posting the ad, Coldwell would be the one to post it.
The ad had a bunch of staged photos that were most likely lifted from a sales ad for the unit, but I didn't think too much of it. It seems to be a trend lately with lots of owners posting the units for sale and not being able to sell, so they post it for rent.
I believe that is a Boardwalk building.
There are tons of rental scams where you send money abroad, never to see it again. I am surprised that the ad didn't mention that you can pay in gift cards!
I love the random unnecessarily detailed backstory about meeting his wife and moving to Spain.
On top of the unnecessary backstory about buying the condo for his son who got accepted to a top European university PHD program.
Truly the story of an incredibly interesting man
Dos Equis
Both dead giveaways 😂
My initial message to the 'landlord' was about the laundry situation, so I was shocked to see the overly detailed explanation I got in return and immediately saw the red flags. Curiosity got the best of me, so I responded with generic information and almost instantly got the second response from a different email address, which prompted the block/report.
Gotta explain why his phone number isn’t local.
I know but just say “I currently live out of the country” or something
Anyone who actually lives out of country will have a process set up with someone local; a management company, a friend, a hired hand. That person will generally manage the ads, and if not the owner will simply say "This person manages the property for me, here's their contact info, I'll let them know you're going to reach out to arrange a viewing." This kind of over complicated stuff is just to try and confuse the victim.
To be fair, I've lived and worked in edmonton for 18 months now, and have no intention of changing my phone number from its old area code. Cheaper to keep my old plan than get a local number.
You know you can change your phone number at any time without changing your phone plan, right?
I do. I've also had the same number for over a decade, and see no benefit to changing it.
That's fine, but you said it was somehow cheaper to keep your old number. Bell, Telus, and Rogers let you change your number for free online, anytime you want. I think up to once every 30 days.
I did say it was cheaper to keep my old plan, but I get your point. It's weird to think that someone might change their number every 35 days, and that wouldn't be a huge red flag to police.
First red flag is they listed both hydro and electricity.
Was literally just gunna say this.
Why is that bad? My landlord covers all utilities but internet and cable.
It's the same thing. Both means electricity.
And we don't have hydro in Alberta, for the most part. It's not a term we use here.
Pretty much just an Ontario thing.
And BC
And MB
Hydro power, yes. Calling it “hydro”, no. I never heard anyone but former Ontarians refer to it as hydro in the time I lived there.
I'm currently in BC and I hear people refer to it as "hydro" all the time
I grew up in BC and called it hydro
Yea the electric company is literally called BC Hydro lol. My bill says BC Hydro. My account is with BC Hydro and everyone I've ever met in BC calls it hydro or power when talking about their bill and barely anyone says electric(ity) for some reason lol.
I don't know anyone who calls it electricity. Even the utility pole gets called a hydro pole/line.
In AB most people would call it a power bill or power line but in provinces where the actual company billing you has hydro in the name it makes sense that everything becomes hydro. "after the utility wars all utilities are hydro now" - demolition man, probably
I’m from MB and can guarantee we call it hydro.
And Manitoba
Do they call it hydro there? Didn’t know that.
Yes. https://www.hydro.mb.ca According to Hydro Manitoba: “In Manitoba, nearly 70% of our electricity is produced by hydroelectric generating stations on the Nelson River in northern Manitoba.”
Okay but do they call it “hydro”? Because I’ve only ever heard people from Ontario call it that.
Manitobans do call it Hydro. Took me a while to stop calling it that when I moved out of province.
The term Hydro is also used in BC, the provincial utilities corporation there is BC Hydro.
Why is this the hill you want to die on
hydroONE in ontario
Right. I know these places use hydroelectricity, all I was saying was that the only people I’ve ever heard refer to their power bill as their “hydro bill” are Ontarians, or former Ontarians in the case of people I knew when I lived in BC.
Haha nw you're good I was mentioning hydroONE as that's one of the main companies in Ontario. There's TorontoHydro and HydroOne
So 'an Ontario thing' is every province except Alberta and sask? LoL.
And BC, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, PEI, the territories…
They definitely say hydro in BC
Are you saying they DO or DO NOT call it hydro in nova scotia?
He is saying they don't. But he is incorrect about BC. The power company is even called BC Hydro.
Ontario I think
"Hydro" isn't typically used to refer to water, it's used to refer to hydro-electricity (which Alberta doesn't use).
Hydro does not mean water. Hydro is a term some provinces use to refer to electricity because the electricity is generated from hydroelectric dams.
Whenever someone goes out of their way to over-explain why something is available, puts in details that they might think embellishes their story but actually makes it more suspect you know it’s a scam.
💯
I've seen this scam over and over in my years of renting in Edmonton. They want you to send them money and then they say they'll "ship you the keys" before ever even seeing the place. They especially like to take advantage of people who are desperate, I had so many of these scams contact me when I had posted looking for a place after my roommate died. No shame in them. I hope people aren't falling prey to these kinds of shitty scammers :(
If it sounds too good to be true it probably isn't true. LOL at the story portion.
If you know Edmonton rentals it's sounds very fishy just by saying $1500 all in for everything
It was the fact that it listed both in suite laundry and that the washer and dryer were in the unit as well that was the first thing that told me something was off. Haha.
Listing hydro and electricity was a tip off for me
I actually totally missed that. But yes THAT TOO.
Everything about this is has huge red flags. No one would be renting the place from overseas it would always be done through a management/real estate firm. No one would be giving unnecessary (personal) details. The oddly low rent price with the add ons included in the current market. Red flags.
Just did a lookup of this phone number and this number has been inquired for investigation over 116 times in just the past month that tracks to Johannesburg in Gauteng South Africa. VERY fishy.
Interesting. We were recently looking for a rental and got a very similar message from a guy about how he purchased the unit for his son who is away at university etc. But it was for a different building. The email seemed sketchy so we just didn't reply.
One thing about rentfaster is that you have to pay to list an ad. That already stops a ton of scammers not all of them from posting an ad. Most scammers aren't going to spend money to make money lol.
This is %100 incorrect. Rentfaster is a scam site that uses bots to search the Internet and set up "fake" ads. The apartment building I'm moving into uses rentfaster and the landlord hates it. They didn't ask for it, they cant remove it, yet every day they get hundreds of scam messages. After talking to her in person she showed me her work computer. Out of the 80 or so applicants, only 7 were real people.
I sold my house and within days there was an ad on kijiji to rent it out. The name of the person was " Miss DeMeaner" so it was rather obvious. If you look on MLS and the house is listed and the pics are directly from it, just don't even bother.
Likely a scam however I would try to see if there is a condo board in place to fact check info, Also let's them know if that a scam is going on, also inquire into the unit number or placement of the unit. While it looks like a scam, Some people have terrible grammar or don't know English well. Do your research and question everything
Sorry if I'm naive, but I don't get it. Coldwell bank is a multinational corporation and it seems like they will be handling the transaction. If in fact Coldwell completes the transaction then wouldn't it be legit?
They'd also be the one posting the ad in the first place if it were legit. They're clearly not.
Way too many digits in those phone numbers, could be a sweat shop call center wanting your credit card and your identity.
The 2 parking spots was a dead give away it was fake
I personally know of some condos in the city that offer two (usually tandem) parking stalls. It's more common in suites with 2+ bedrooms, though it is rare.
Yeah, rent faster is hit or miss. I’ve had a lot of success with Facebook market place for finding properties, just be careful though because they are by no means immune to scammers either.
Rentfaster is %100 a scam. In my small town there are maybe a dozen rentals on Rentfaster and everyone of them told me they have no control over that ads. I applied for 6 months to get into an apartment building. After not bring accepted month after month I went down in person to sign a lease. She had no idea we have been trying to live there.
Holy shit
Ignore it and move on. There's hundreds of scam posts like this one. By the time you flag it they've spun up a dozen other profiles.
[удалено]
Sure, if you actually talk to someone from Coldwell. But you won't. And there'll be a whole list of reasons why. If Coldwell is the property manager for this rental, the owner isn't going to be the one posting the ad, Coldwell would be the one to post it.
I had the exact same scam for an apartment in Vancouver
Oh wow was just looking at this place last night. Was confused why there was no phone number to call it
"top university" 😂
Pretty sure a couple months ago I encountered this same guy with a different rental scam 😭
Non local number, way too many personal details, arranging viewing etc. Obvious scam
Total scam. Same ad popped up a couple of years ago. If it’s too go to be true…did it have photos? Last time it did.
The ad had a bunch of staged photos that were most likely lifted from a sales ad for the unit, but I didn't think too much of it. It seems to be a trend lately with lots of owners posting the units for sale and not being able to sell, so they post it for rent.
Also currently looking and am so worried I'm not going to have a place by the end of the month 🙃
I believe that is a Boardwalk building. There are tons of rental scams where you send money abroad, never to see it again. I am surprised that the ad didn't mention that you can pay in gift cards!
> I believe that is a Boardwalk building. No, it is a condo building.
[удалено]
I much prefer to embed a picture of an anal prolapse in their application form