Buffalo Grove police received a report Monday of a rental scam in the block of 500 Lasalle Lane Buffalo Grove, IL. Buffalo Grove police received a report of a rental scam in a vacant home after a real estate representing the house “for sale” walked in the home to find a man living in the house.
The real estate agent called police, who spoke with the scammed renter and learned that he had found the property in the “for rent” section of Craigslist on February 5, 2016. According to the police report, the man met the person — an “older female” — the next day, and that the victim believed she was the landlord at the house.
Soon after he moved in, he discovered after the visit from the actual real estate agent representing the home, that the residence was actually for sale and that the man he paid was not the owner.
The new tenant had moved in after paying a man he met on Craigslist. He paid $1,000 in cash and $1,500 in a cashier’s check to cover February’s rent. An older woman, who seemed credible also falsely represented being an agent responsible for renting the property.
The man from Craigslist reportedly had functioning keys that unlocked the front door, but police later discovered that the door had been forcibly entered with pry marks visible and the locks recently changed.
The real owner of the house allowed the victimized renter to stay one more night, but the man lost $2,500 and moving expenses because of the scam.
Buffalo Grove police are investigating. No physical description of the offenders were available from the Buffalo Grove Police Department.
Buffalo Grove police has no social media presence online, and no alert was posted on Buffalo Grove’s official website. However, a notice on the village’s official website front page posted a headline from August 2014 that claimed real estate brokerage firm Movoto designated Buffalo Grove the second safest city in Illinois.
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