The housing market is tough right now, which means more families are looking to rent. And that's like Christmas for con artists. Anyone looking for a rental is at risk to fall for this scam.
Scammers are running a scam here in Mid-Michigan, going after people who need a home in a hurry. It's because it works best for someone who needs to move in quickly and may not have time for a walk-through or inspection.
It almost happened to Nora Ketchum
FOX 47's Alani Letang talked Ketchum who outsmarted her scammer and wants to warn the next target.
"I'm supposed to be out of here by the end of the month, I don't have a home, no place to go, me and my family are probably going to be on the street," said Nora Ketchum, who are trying to rent a house
It's not that Ketchum didn't try to get out.
"And here I thought I had a place and this is happening," said Ketchum.
Tuesday she answered a Craiglist ad posted by a person going by the name Mike Shinn looking for someone to rent his house.
Ketchum told Letang Shinn claimed he needed to move because of work. He emailed Ketchum the house was hers and then sent an application on Wednesday, that's when she got leery.
She told Letang, "he was going to give me this house, supposedly the home that he wanted us to take really good care of and he's going to do all this by email? not even meeting me, knowing what type of a person I am."
If the wording wasn't a clue enough, Ketchum said the moment she couldn't get a picture of inside the home she wanted to rent she knew something was going on.
"So I emailed him back and said I want to meet him and his wife at the house to actually see the house and inside," said Ketchum. He offered to send pictures and told her she'd get the keys once she paid a $680 deposit.
"And I said no I'm not going to send the deposit until I see the home," and his response she said, "well you can go drive by there."
Instead, she did a property check of the alleged Shinn residence. Ketchum said when she searched the address, the owners she found were, "under two different names, not his, not by any means."
The Attorney General's office needed Shinn's address to go after him, so Ketchum tried to trick him into giving it up.
"'No you can do everything in western union' No I want to send you a money order give me an address and I will send it to you, 'no hold on just a moment' and he had me on hold for I don't know how long," said Ketchum.
Ketchum said she didn't fall for it, leaving him free to run the scam on someone else with a little less intuition. "The thought of that sickens me that somebody else is losing money to this man," said Ketchum.
The ad has now been removed from craigslist. Ketchum told Letang she answered another one on Craigslist and thinks it was the same guy based on the e-mail patterns.
Experts say it should be a warning sign if someone asks you to pay a security deposit with cash or money order.
We'll let you know if the Attorney General's office is able to track this guy down.
