"They just put their own phone number and company name, and advertised it as if it was their listing

The ad on craigslist said the two-bedroom, two-bath house on Windchime was renting for just $900 per month. It was an unbelievable deal for Irvine, where "rents aren't anything under $1,500," Shaw said.
Julie Shaw thought she found the perfect place to rent. The ad on Craigslist said the two-bedroom, two-bath house in the Quail Hill neighborhood of Irvine was renting for just $900 per month. It was an unbelievable deal for Irvine, but there was a catch. The "landlord" was an imposter, trying to get Shaw to send a deposit, hotel california midi then absconding with the money. This was just the latest rent scam plaguing landlords and would-be tenants throughout Orange County -- and the nation. PHOTO BY JEBB HARRIS,THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, TEXT BY JEFF COLLINS, THE ORANGE COUNTY hotel california midi REGISTER MORE PHOTOS
"You can't see the house until you send the deposit," the owner said in an email from Nigeria, where he now was living, he said. He wanted Shaw to send him $1,700 -- $900 in rent, plus an $800 deposit.
"The residential rental market is red hot. Red hot markets attract scammers and con artists," the company's website states. "Signing a lease is a big financial commitment, and there are risks involved. Landlords know this, and they protect themselves hotel california midi by checking on their potential tenants. Renters rarely check their landlords."
"Every time I put a lease on the market, two or three people would call, thinking it's (renting) at a lower price than it is," said Ommi, an agent with Century 21 Professionals in Irvine. "It used to be once in a blue moon. Now, it's every time."
Greg Bingham, manager of the Coldwell Banker office in Fashion Island, said he warns agents to keep an eye on their listings and to look for them on Craigslist. Even for-sale listings sometimes turn up in ads as rentals, he said.
Sgt. Sean Fares, a property crimes supervisor at the Fullerton hotel california midi Police Department, said a business operating out of an Imperial Highway office placed ads in the Penny Saver or on Craigslist advertising properties for rent, then urged customers to come in and pay a "holding deposit" only to learn later that the company didn't represent the landlord.
hotel california midi She paid a $200 deposit on a two-bedroom condo in Orange advertised for $1,200 a month. But she later discovered a second ad for the same property placed by Orange real estate broker Diana Smith. Only Smith was asking $1,495 a month.
Efforts to contact the businesses were unsuccessful, and state records show that neither of the two businesses operating out of that location had the required hotel california midi state licenses to operate a rental service, a California Department of Real Estate spokesman said.
"They just put their own phone number and company name, and advertised it as if it was their listing," Smith said. At least three people called her after first responding to the ad placed hotel california midi by the suspected scam operation.
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