Police are warning college and university students in the city about an online fraud.
It happens when university and college students go looking for accommodation.
North Bay Police has recently been informed of a fraudster who is advertising on a website, offering to rent an apartment on Sixth Avenue in North Bay that he doesn’t own.
Police advise students to be extremely cautious when responding to online ads.
Online websites can offer classified ad space to local rental property owners looking to promote their apartments and rooms for rent.
This can be a valuable free service for students.
But there are false advertisers out there who can put students at risk of fraud.
Tips on how to detect fraudulent ads
• The advertiser comes up with an excuse as to why he/she can’t be there to show you the apartment in person.
• The advertiser wishes to make a deal with you through photos only.
• The offer is too good to be true. It’s in a great location, a rental price that is lower than all the others, and/or it has great features such as five appliances, parking, all utilities paid, etc.
• The advertiser wants money up front before you meet him/her or before you are able to see the unit.
Other useful tips
• Meet in-person only to inspect the apartment before agreeing to rent it;
• When agreeing to a meeting, have someone go with you or at least inform someone where you are going, on what date and at what time;• Never send or wire money to advertisers who use these services. This includes mailing a cheque or using payment services like PayPal, Square Transactions, Online Jumble Sales, eTradeDepot, Gizmagdepot.com, Rent Monitor, Amazon Payments, Bidpay, Google Wallet/ Checkout, Canada Post, Western Union or Money Gram. While these sites can be very useful and secure, typically scammers are only pretending to use them and will even go so far as to falsify documents from a legitimate company;
• Never give out personal or banking information (e.g. social insurance number, bank account number) over the Internet;
• Inform the online website service of any attempted fraud or suspicious emails, ads, or other activity.
