Penticton police are urging due diligence for potential renters after a woman was swindled out of $1,000 on a fake rental property in Penticton.
A male identified only as “John White” advertised a rental suite on Penticton Avenue through online classified site Kijiji.
Read more: how to spot a rental scam
A Penticton woman responded and eventually sent a $1,000 deposit via an online e-transfer. The property was not legitimately up for rent. Police said the strata manager at the location told the woman they had received several similar complaints.
“This is on the rise where they start sending pictures of someone’s home and someone is away. Usually to someone who doesn’t have the time to come out here or maybe relocate from Calgary,” said Rick Dellebuur, community policing liaison for the Penticton RCMP. “They say ‘yeah, OK, I’ll take it and send the deposit only to get here and find out that it’s not available. So you really have to check.”