SAN DIEGO — For about a year, people have been showing up to Kate Schneiderman's home in University City in hopes of making it their home.
“I’ve had I think three or four people come by my place thinking that it was for rent and saying that they booked a tour online,” Schneiderman said.
Kate isn't planning on moving anytime soon. She told CBS 8 that people showed up to her doorsteps looking to get a tour of her home.
“I'm not renting my place, so I had to tell them I'm sorry, this isn't for rent,” Schneiderman said.
Kate shared her experience on the Nextdoor app, looking to get advice on how to handle this situation and to alert the community so nobody else falls victim.
“So this is mostly just to make sure that other people know that there could be fake listings out there and that they don't get scammed by someone online,” Schneiderman said.
Luckily, Kate believes nobody that showed up to her home paid any money in advance, but it's a situation that's left her feeling uneasy.
“I felt a little just nervous that you know my information I guess was kind of out there because one of the people who came to my place they had like a basically a lease agreement that had like my name on it,” Schneiderman said.
Kate told CBS 8 that she reached out to one of the websites where her property was shown and in about a day the listing was taken down.
“It was requesting $2,000 a month, which would probably be a pretty good deal for this area, so it definitely felt like too good to be true and so I can see why a lot of people would be really interested,” Schneiderman said.
To help others stay safe from these type of scams, Apartment List shares some red flags to look for:
- Rental pictures look too good to be true.
- Rental listing has errors.
- You're pressured to lease right away.
- You're asked for money upfront.
- There's no credit check involved.
“Triple check all of the information before you actually put down any money or take any big steps so that you can make sure it's real and accurate and that you don't get yourself in a position where you're sending money to someone who is not using it in your best interest,” Schneiderman said.
For more information on how to figure out if a rental listing is real, visit bbb.org
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