$1800 down the drain for an occupied rental: Real estate scams on the rise in Ipswich

A family with five children who turned up at an Ipswich home after paying $1800 in bond, only to find it was already rented, are just some of the people being ripped off. Estate agents say scammers are taking advantage of the desperate leasing market.

Ipswich residents are being urged to beware of scammers as increasing desperation to find rental properties leaves some people exposed to ripoffs.

Sam Franklin said two families turned up at his home, which he had only recently moved into, over two consecutive weeks after being tricked by the same scammer.

Just days after Mr Franklin moved into his new rental, his partner came home to find a family of seven peering through their front door.

When she asked what they were doing, the family explained said they connected with a man on Facebook marketplace who told them he was in Tasmania for work and was looking for someone to rent his property while he was away.

“We were just like ‘hang on a minute, what is going on?” Mr Franklin said.

The family was expecting the man’s assistant to meet them at Mr Franklin’s address with a key and were told they could move in within a week.

They had already transferred $1800 bond to the man, but when they checked their messages all their Facebook Marketplace conversations had been deleted. They have now gone to the police.

Desperate renters are easy pickings for scammers. Picture: istock

“Not long after they had transferred the funds, he’s blocked them on Facebook and did a runner,” Mr Franklin said.

He contacted his real estate agent but they told him that as it was a Facebook interaction the agency could not help.

A week later, another family turned up on Mr Franklin’s doorstep with the same story – although they had yet to transfer any bond.

“They’d sort of clued on to what was going on before they made any transfers and decided to check the place out first,” Mr Franklin said.

“They obviously got their answer.”

The scammer had used photos of the property from when it had previously been listed on a real estate website to make it look legitimate.

“We’ve been keeping an eye out on Facebook Marketplace – whether his name has popped up again,” he said.

Laura Johns said she recently came across a similar scammer listing an Ipswich property on Facebook when she was looking for a rental.

They showed her photos and listed an address, but she became suspicious because the rent was cheap and they did not ask her many questions.

“It all seemed legit at first until I said to him ‘can we come view the place?’” she said.

The scammer, going by the name Darren, said he was out of town and had a lot of interest so if she paid the bond he would make sure the property went to her.

“That’s when I started realising that there was something else,” Ms Johns said.

“You can’t expect someone to pay a bond without seeing a house. You’re not buying a bit of furniture.”

She told him she wouldn’t pay any money without a viewing and when “Darren’’ continued to make excuses she accused him of trying to scam her. He then blocked her.

“I just thought to myself, if it’s too good to be true then it probably isn’t,” Ms Johns said.

She searched his name and found another account with the same name and profile.

Ms Johns reported him to Facebook and posted a warning in community groups.

“Unless they (Facebook) get 20 reports about the same thing, they don’t really do much about it,” she said.

Coronis real estate director, Rebecca Barnett, said she has seen increasing numbers of rental scams in recent years.

“It’s hard. People are desperate; we can see that right across the state … people are going to do anything they can to get a property at the moment, and that’s where (scammers) are taking advantage,” she said.

Ms Barnett listed some warning signs.

“The lease agreements they’re sending are not Queensland lease agreements … the photos they provide are not the photos of the property, and they want money straight away before you can even inspect the property or sign a lease,” she said.

Ms Barnett said most of the scams were done on Facebook and most scammers could be exposed by requesting more information about a property, such as an official lease agreement.

“Under Queensland legislation, if you rent a property through an agency or privately, you actually have to view a copy of the lease agreement before payment can be made,” she explained.

She encountered a scammer in Rosewood recently who refused to give her a copy of the rates notice.

“If you’re the true owner of the property and you’re going to be renting out your property, you should have no issues with showing proof of ownership,” she said.

“There’s a lot of people that know what to look out for, but if they’re desperate or homeless … they’ll still pay the money.

“In these times, everyone’s desperate – and when you’ve got a number of kids and you need to put a roof over their head it can get quite stressful.

“I know times are hard – the rental market is a nightmare – but (you) need to be vigilant because these sorts of people are out there in numbers.”

Mr Franklin also encouraged people to source housing through legitimate avenues, where possible.

The residential tenancies authority (RTA) Australia has further information on how to identify real estate scams and avenues to report scams on their website.