Jan. 14, 2019
by Morinville News Staff
RCMP in Strathcona County are investigating a vacation rental scam posted on Kijiji.
Police say the scam begins with a person searching for a rental property, either an apartment or home in a desired destination.
The potential victim is asked to provide a deposit on the rental, typically by wire transfer. Once the potential victim arrives at the property, they realize it was all a scam. Either the rental doesn’t exist, was never available for rental, or the condition has been misrepresented.
Strathcona RCMP say a group of friends were looking to spend a few days in Banff earlier this month. The group located a vacation rental house on Kijiji and after conversing with who they believed to be the homeowner a deposit was sent through e-transfer. When they arrived at the vacation rental the actual owners were present and it was determined they had been scammed.
Police say if the deal looks too good to be true it probably is.
They also recommend looking up the property on Google Maps and use Street View to make sure the property exists and appears the same as in the images.
Police caution that fraudulent users often prefer to use cash-transfers including Money Gram or Western Union. Police recommend that you use VISA, Master Card or American Express as they will help recover any payments in the case of loss.
Lot of bad people out there.
Renting a recreational property through Kijiji should of been the first red flag (always use a true rental property system ie VRBO or Airbnb) the second thing is always do your research on where you are renting to see if the municipality allows short term rentals (Banff and Canmore do not allow this as per their bylaws).
Am I the only one who just nicely gets into the article & a Morinville News ad pops up & prevents me from reading the article. This happens almost every time I try to read one of your articles on FB…..it is very vexing! Suggestions or solutions?
Katherine Mary-Ellen happens to me too. Pops right into the article on the left side
Brenda Measner Can you message us a screen shot.
Katherine Mary-Ellen – can you message us a screen shot.
MorinvilleNews.com done!
Katherine Mary-Ellen I tried to print the recycling article and I couldn’t because of the same issue ….I would of thought the town would have notified the residents of the changes ….
Jocelyne Fortier Schoenberger problem has been rectified. TY MorinvilleNews.com!
Callen
I get add in the middle of the article
Polly Wolly problem has been rectified, TY MorinvilleNews.com!
The ad in the middle of the article is supposed to be there. Advertising is what pays for the news. Katherine Mary-Ellen was able to show us the issue – our Facebook feed on the left sidebar was overlapping content on some browsers. It was a three second fix on our end.
MorinvilleNews.com by the time I saw you wanted a screenshot, you had fixed it! Guess we should have told you sooner!