Types of scams involving rental apartments in Bogotá: this is how criminals operate

Are you looking for apartments for rent in Bogotá? Be careful, because a scam has come to light New type of robbery involving buildings in the north of the capital.

(More: How to spot a scam with fake WhatsApp support accounts).

According to reports, scammers publish real photos of the houses on websites with lower prices than usual. This was reported by a young woman through the social network TikTok, who They asked him for 600,000 pesos in cash to reserve a house in Cedritoswhich is considered one of the best neighborhoods to live in the town of Usaquén.

“We came across an ad for an apartment in the north that had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and, in addition to the usual, the kitchen was modern.“, said the user, who specified that the value of the rental fee was 1,500,000 pesos.

Regarding this amount, the young woman indicated that although “It seemed a little strange to him“Since the rental price was very cheap for the area where they were looking, she decided to continue the process with her partner and sent the request so that the landlord could contact them.

(Read: Be careful: this is how a scammer studies his victims over the phone).

After three weeks of waiting, The alleged tenant contacted the young woman through the WhatsApp messaging applicationIt was at that moment that the user asked for more photos of the property to verify all the areas, to which the ‘owner’ sent her all the evidence, which gave the young woman confidence.

When showing interest in the apartment, the owner told him that “He does not live in Colombia, so it was difficult for him to show the house to all those interested.“.

Then, the supposed tenant mentioned to the young woman that he was asking for the following before showing the property: documents that validate that those who will take it earn enough to pay what the fee costs.

(See: Beware! These are the risks you are exposed to when answering unknown numbers).

When they sent him some of the papers proving that they could pay the rent for the apartment, and informed the owner of a possible date to go see the property, this person made a new request: “He told me to schedule the appointment, but to bring 600 thousand pesos in cash so that he could set it aside and he would know that I was going to take the contract.“.

With the latter, the user knew that it was a scam and stopped contacting the supposed tenant of the property.

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