A Rental Scam in Omaha
WOWT 6 News reports on a rental scam in Omaha, “A career transition brought a Kansas City man to Omaha but a con man on a computer thousands of miles away has made for an expensive move.
“A new job drew Ben White-Newby to Omaha and an online rental ad full of pictures lured him to a southwest Omaha apartment building.”
“I really wanted to have this apartment because it was so centrally located to what I needed to get to work and church,” said White-Newby.
An apartment being sublet by a man name Kenneth claiming to be away inspecting an oil rig. Ben just needed to pay a $500 deposit by putting money on iTunes cards, then giving the new landlord the access numbers to claim the cash anywhere.
Ben figured his new landlord would be walking up anytime and he’d know who to look for. That’s because the man renting the apartment sent a picture of a passport but that man never showed up and the passport appears to trip up scam victims.
Ben White-Newby said, “At first I was angry but more hurt than anything else because I used my hard earned money to move up here to Omaha for a job, and finally able to meet my goal of moving into an apartment, so I was really disappointed.”
Six On Your Side sent the rental pitch to the real management company in Minnesota which is looking into the online posting. Six On Your Side sent that picture of the passport to the Department of Homeland Security for further investigation.
Unfortunately, a rental scam in Omaha is too common. How to protect yourself from such scams?
- Don’t pay the first and last in cash. If you write a check, you might have an opportunity to stop payment on the check.
- The rental agent may say they are out of town and want you to wire money.
- They say they’re out of the country. But they have a plan to get the keys into your hands. It might involve a lawyer or an “agent” working on their behalf. Some scammers even create fake keys. Don’t send money to them overseas. If you can’t meet in person, see the apartment, or sign a lease before you pay, keep looking.
- They want a security deposit or first month’s rent before you’ve met or signed a lease
- Craig’s List offers this advice. A rental scam in Omaha had an ad with no photos. There should be photos?
- If it is priced lower than the competition, it probably is too good to be true.
- Look for spelling errors. Emails from scammers are often littered with grammatical mistakes and typos. If the email is difficult to read, lengthy, or includes a sad story, then it’s possibly a scam.
- They do a credit check and it doesn’t matter that you have a poor credit history and two previous evictions.
- Zillow advises: Requests for personal or financial information. Do not provide your bank account number or Social Security Number to unknown sources. First verify it is a trusted source and then only provide this information sparingly.
- Call us. We’ve worked with a lot of rental agents and are familiar with the neighborhoods.
Styl Properties, Inc. is part of a nationwide group of thousands of investors who are helping tens of thousands of homeowners every year. We may not be the “traditional” route, but we CAN help and we can do it quickly.
Give us a call today at 402.909.0608 to let us know what YOU need help with!