You've always got to keep your wits about you because those pesky old scammers are trying to steal your details or clean out your bank accounts. But when you see a Consumer Protection logo you think it's legit, you might have to think again because concerning you, wave of rental scams is emerging. The scammers and our posing as Consumer Protection. Trish Blake is the Consumer Protection Commissioner and she joins your live on six pr Is Friday High.
Trish, Hey, Ollie, it's gonde full sir. Yeah.
Look, and this is an incredibly frustrating and concerning development. So it's a variation on an existing kind of scam theme that we've had. So we know that scammers will target people who are desperate to find a rental property, and they'll advertise fake rentals and take people's bond money and rent in advance, and then the person gets ready to move in only to find the house was never
available for rent. What they're doing now because one of the things that what we used to say to people is if you pay a bond, make sure you get a bond receipt from us, from Consumer Protection or the bond administrator to confirm that your bond is being deposited, and these scammers are actually issuing fake emails to these victims to reinforce the scam or to say it's legit. You've paid me a bond, here's your receipt. Now you
need to pay me more rent in advance. This is before the person has even moved into the property.
And they're using what your logo or pretending that it's somehow affiliated with Consumer Protection Trees.
Yet they're using our logo, they're using our forms, so they've copied our our materials. The one thing that they cannot copy though, and this is what I want people to really look out for, is the email address itself. So make sure you hover over or you know, the email address to get the true full email address that the mat has been sent from, because ours will always come from WA dot gov, dot au, coming from Gmail and other generic email accounts.
So people, as you say, we know there's a rental crisis, where are they finding their victims? Are they approaching them or is it somebody maybe seeing a post for a rental property on social media?
And this is how they try to the lure them in.
Yeah, look it's both. So we often see a lot of advertisements on social media platforms, and these will be properties that are being advertised. You'll be told that you can go to a drive by that you can't go in, and they'll have all sorts of reasons why you can't go inside the property, and then they ask for money in advance. But we're also seeing and I still see it on the social media platforms, people who are desperate for a home and they post a wanted you know,
I need a rental. They ask for help of their community, which is understandable, but the scammers, this is that's just like a target to scammers, and they just start message direct messaging, and I've seen the grooming that these scammers do and it is incredible. Like they'll say, look, I'm a really good person as a landlord, and I can tell, I can feel that you're a good person. And you know, for this tenant who's desperately trying to get a property,
they are a good person. And so to have someone reassure them that they're a good person and I'm just going to help you out and I'm going to give you this property, and yes it's going to be cheaper, but just go have a look, make sure and then start paying me money. The grooming is very intense, and you don't you just don't think that it could be a fake?
Is all the communication done online or of some scammers been as brazen to meet people face to face.
Look, most recently we've had a gentleman who's lost two four hundred dollars. That's after he met the scammer face to face. Well, you met the fake landlord in person. They were outside the property. He said, look, you can only look outside. You can't go inside because there's current tenants in place. But if you like the look of the property and you like the location, I'm happy to
rent it to you pay me your money now. So this poor gentleman lost two four hundred dollars, which would have been a bond payment.
Geez. They have really got their backs up having these scammers.
So keep our antennas up if we think we've come into contact with any of these people locally. Obviously trush to get in contact with Consumer Protection because you go hard.
Yeah, absolutely want to get I want to get these people because I am not happy that they're using our materials to purpose, you know, to double down and really impact these poor victims. So please if you see any of this behavior, please notify us as quickly as possible so that we can work with the police and try
and take over these locals. But also, if you see these ads online, and even if you're not sure before you jump in and pay money, even give Consumer Protection a call and talk to us over the phone and we'll be able to help you talk through and maybe help you spot some red flags.
And if you're thinking that's sort of too cheap at the moment, it probably is too good to be true. That's a bit of a telltale sign, isn't. If the property you think in the local areas maybe five hundred a week and this one's two hundred and forty bucks, there is something going on.
Absolutely, if you cannot look inside the walk away, I can almost guarantee you it's a scam. If it's way cheaper than the local rentals in the area, walk away, because it's going to be a scam. And if they start telling you how wonderful a person, how they can feel you're a wonderful person, and they haven't even met you walk away.
Helene says, Thank goodness, we have people like Trish looking after the interests of all of us, vulnerable or not.
This is why we love you. Trish awesome.
Thank you very much. I wish we could do more.
Have a good weekend.
Thanks Solly, you too,