15 Finds Out: Rental scams rampant online

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE)--A Fort Wayne woman was scammed out of hundreds of dollars in a house rental fraud on Craigslist .  The owner of a rental company said the problem is getting so bad, she's found fake ads for almost all of her more than 150 properties.

Nadia Hall and her family want to move.  Like many folks, she found some rental homes on Craigslist.

After applying for several rental homes online, Hall, 26, received information and called the man she thought was renting a home on the northeast side of Fort Wayne. 

“I sent my information to him and he said, 'Yay you're a winner.  You're approved for this house.  Just bring $300 via money gram and I'll send you a document and keys and when you move in, you can send the rest of your money,’” Hall said.

After sending the money, Hall said she never got the keys. 

“I asked him to just send our money back to us and he hung up the phone on me,” said Hall.  “There’s nothing you can do about it.  Once the money is sent, it’s gone forever.”

It turns out, she wasn't the only one.  The scammer is duplicating information found on realtors' websites.  

“He's in many cities hitting many many people,” Hall said.

15 Finds Out went to the houses the scammer offered Hall.  A legitimate company had already rented one of them out.

Gary Carter used Haffner Rentals and legitimately moved into a house on Fairfield Avenue May 21.  Scammers using fake names have kept posting his house, even after he moved in.

“We actually had a car drive up and the lady actually said, ‘Are you looking at the house or renting or moving out?’  And I said, 'No, we just moved in.' She said, ‘But I just saw this house on Craigslist.’”  

It's an all too common problem, Lynn Generette-Haffner, the owner of Haffner Rentals, said it's hurting the market.

“It's happens to almost every single one of our properties.  Almost every single one,” Generette-Haffner said.  “We got our attorney's involved and as we started to chase them, we found out that this is a pretty big network.  It's huge.  It's not just here in Fort Wayne.  It's everywhere.  The minute that we track their IP address, they shut down and open up another IP address.  They're very smart, and very savvy.”

So how do you avoid becoming the next victim?  If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Generette-Haffner advises not giving money to people you haven't met.