County in Colorado warns of Real Estate Scam
Photo by: Mhall209
Arapahoe County in Colorado has sent out a real estate scam warning to people planning to buy or rent real estate there. District Attorney Carol Chambers apprised all, her office had received several complaints from consumers about online rental scams perpetrated on properties in the county.
Fraudsters are using a simple modus operandi. They search for property ads, both online and in the print media, lift all details pertaining to properties there, and post it online at a heavily discounted rate. Craigslist.org is a site that is favored for this purpose.
People seeking properties on rent or for sale are immediately attracted to the throwaway price listed for properties that they must have seen earlier listed at a much higher price.
When they respond by calling at numbers given in the ads, they are asked to make a deposit for the deal in an overseas account. The scammers specifically ask the respondents to wire the deposit. Wire transfer is as good as sending cash as later, when the scam is revealed, it makes tracing of the money to the fraudsters difficult.
Fraudsters unleash their powers of imagination in providing with reasons for requiring the money to be deposited in an overseas account. Sometimes, they proffer that the UN job they are holding down has just transferred them to a location in West Africa. Or, as revealed by the DA, of the scam going on in her county, they might use the name of the church and say they are being sent to Africa on fresh missionary work.
Readers are invited to submit more revealing examples of their powers of imagination…
Source: DenverPost.com
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