Victoria Police are on the hunt for a man after a bunch of young Aussies in Melbourne were conned out of thousands of dollars in a rental scam involving an Airbnb guest posing as a landlord.
Sophie Gibbons, 24, told 7NEWS that she’d come across a rental property located in Melbourne in the Fairy Floss Real Estate Facebook group which was “perfect” for what she needed.
The group, which has 400,000 members, is a legitimate service where people list rooms and properties to rent, so Sophie wasn’t suspicious. She said a man, Andrew (not his real name), uploaded the listing and told her he lived at the property but wasn’t the owner. She said he was looking for someone to takeover his lease.
“He sounded pretty genuine, and he was telling me he’s going to (work at) the mines,” she said.
“It wasn’t suspicious at all.”
The two arranged a date for Sophie’s partner to inspect the property.
Stephen Irvine, 27, also arranged an inspection.
Both Sophie’s partner and Stephen inspected the property on August 27, though not at the same time. They both met a man who introduced himself as Greg (not his real name).
Greg told Sophie’s partner that he was the landlord, but he told Stephen that he was a friend of Andrew (the man who list the property).
“[Greg] told me he’d been living in Melbourne for a couple of years. I told him that I had been living here five years ago and went home for a bit and he told me basically the exact same thing, and (he was getting into) all this personal stuff,” Stephen told 7NEWS.
“He seemed around the same age as me and seemed like a normal fella so I guess we sort of bonded (in) that way.”
Both Stephen and Sophie were later told via email that they were successful applicants for the property. They both signed a rental agreement and paid $3,000 to move in ($1,500 bond and $1,500 for the first month of rent).
However, when they tried to pick up the keys, they were stood up and then ghosted.
Sophie, growing suspicious that she may have been entangled in a rental scam, looked up the property’s address online and made the shocking discovery that it had never been up for long term rent — it was an Airbnb. However, it had recently been listed by a real estate agency.
“My partner called the real estate company and (they) said, ‘We’ve only just put it on the market, it used to be an Airbnb and we’ve had lots of people calling about this property’,” Sophie said.
“I was like, ‘Oh shit’.”
As it turns out, it seems a scammer booked the property between August 7 and August 31 and then used it to host fake inspections for desperate renters.
Police have since launched an investigation into the scam, and said in a statement that officers believe “several high-rise buildings and short-term rentals have been fraudulently rented out by the same man”.
They’ve asked the public to help identify a man who they believe can assist with their investigation.
The man is described as Caucasian in appearance, aged in his late twenties to early thirties, around 180cm tall, of a medium build with short, dark brown hair and stubble, and speaks with a Liverpool accent.
“To have someone take advantage of others, especially during a rental crisis, is deplorable,” Port Phillip Crime Investigation Unit Detective Senior Constable Demi Pascoe said.
“Anyone who has fallen victim to a scam of this nature is asked to come forward and report it to police so we can investigate.
“There is no need to be embarrassed – and the information you provide may be what police need to identify the man, make an arrest and lay charges.”
Neither Sophie or Stephen have been able to recover the $3,000 they lost in the rental scam.
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