Advisory: Rental Accommodation Online Scam
The police have urged people to be vigilant following a reported scam involving a fake online rental ad in which someone claimed that two month’s rent plus security deposit should be sent via wire transfer to an overseas account, however no further contact could be made with the individual supposedly offering the apartment for rent once the transaction was completed.
A police spokesperson said, “The Bermuda Police Service would like to remind members of the public to be vigilant when making any purchases using the internet.
“A recent reported scam involved a fake rental accommodation advertisement posted on a local online classifieds site.
“The alleged contact person for the fraudulent posting, a ‘Dr. Jonathan Moore’, claimed that two month’s rent plus security deposit for the apartment should be sent via wire transfer to a specific overseas account.
“However, once the transaction was completed, no further contact could be made with the individual supposedly offering the apartment for rent.
“We encourage members of the public to be extremely vigilant in responding to these types of internet adverts and to be especially wary of responding to any person who is requesting monies using popular free e-mail addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc.
“Many of the local websites carrying classified advertisements already display a warning message on their home page in relation to these types of scams.
“If you have been affected by this scam or any other kind of fraud, please feel free to contact the main police telephone number 295-0011 to report the matter.”
Who would be dumb enough to fall for such a scam? Who would attempt to rent accommodation without seeing it & at least a person representing the owner first?
We are already being scammed on rents here in bermuda for very sub par quality apartments