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Saskatoon police warn of rental scam

Jan 23, 2015 | 3:12 PM

Saskatoon police are warning people to watch out for phoney rental listings.

Police said Friday that they’ve been getting reports about a common scam. Using online classified ads, scammers list a property they don’t own for rent. Often, they’ll include photos taken from legitimate listings and post the property at a low price meant to reel people in. 

From there, when a victim responds to the ads, the scammer claims to be out of town and says they’ll take a damage deposit by email or wire transfer. Once they get the money, the scammers don’t respond to any more communications.

Police are advising people to always check out any rental property in person and not to send money to people they don’t know.