Woman Outsmarts Rental Scammer, CBS11 Uncovers Loophole Allowing Scammers In
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Tiffany Baugh thought she struck renter's gold after finding a 3 bedroom home near Keller for $1,000 a month, including utilities.
"I thought, that's really cheap, maybe he's in a hurry to get someone in there," said Baugh.
The guy who said he was renting it claimed he was a marine getting deployed.
"He said, 'I just talked to somebody else 5 minutes ago and they want to look at the house but I'm saving it for you because you stand out and you're different,"" said Baugh.
He said he was out of state but she should go over, check it out and he'd call her with the lockbox code.
Baugh went to the home and he called her with the code.
"Got the key and went in. It was a really nice house," said Baugh.
Baugh called him and said she'd take it.
"He said, "I want you to take the key, go to the nearest store and wire me the deposit which is $1,055,'" said Baugh.
As soon as he told her to wire the money Baugh knew he was a scammer.
Baugh called her mom and had her look up the home's real owner on the county appraisal website.
"His had a totally different name," said Baugh.
Tiffani called the company on the lockbox and they told her to not wire him money -- it was a Nigerian scam.
Consumer Justice wanted to know how the scammers code received the code.
We learned you go to a site that lists the home (we're not revealing the site) register a name, a debit or prepaid card and they send you the code to get in to see the property.
The site puts a hold on the card for less than $1.00 per code.
Baugh said the code was one reason she almost fell for this.
"I thought, it's too good to be true, and I kept it in my the back of my mind," said Baugh.
Consumer justice called the local office of the company listing the home.
They said their properties have been recently targeted by scammers--they do change the codes and keep track of the homes used in the schemes.
Bottom line -- never wire anyone money for a rental property.
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