CELINA — A rental scam that appeared on a TikTok account almost caused a couple to lose their home.
News Center 7’s Ava Petrosky visited the homeowners in Celina Thursday to get their side of the story.
Jodi McHargue felt sick to her stomach. “I received an email from the manager of the development where our cottage is located stating that she had seen an ad that we were trying to lease our cottage.”
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The manager told her they had to leave their cottage. It was because the property does not allow leasing. But Jodi and her husband are looking to sell. They said they never posted a listing to rent it.
“I did some investigation and found that our cottage was listed on TikTok as a rental property,” Jodi said.
So, she immediately contacted her realtor. Jodi said that one of the first things that her realtor did was put up a sign on the front door to let everyone know that the property is not for rent; it’s just for sale.
Jodi also contacted the Federal Trade Commission and filed a police report.
“And after that, I just kept reporting the listing as fraud multiple times,” she said.
News Center 7 spoke with the president of the Dayton Better Business Bureau, John Morris, to learn more about rental scams. He said they happen all the time, and they can be especially tricky with social media.
“With the advent of AI, you need to understand you can’t always trust what you see, and you can always trust what you hear,” Morris said.
He said if a listing seems too good to be true, it probably is. He advises you to be diligent in your search.
“Ask for extra pictures that they might have, not have displayed in their ad because a lot of times, a scammer is taking the ad that’s a legitimate ad,” Morris said
Which is exactly what happened to the McHargues. Luckily, they caught it before someone actually lost money.
“This is a time when money can be right for people, and if they think they’re getting a great deal, and they went ahead and paid to rent our property, that’s not rentable,” Jodi said.
A neighbor told News Center 7 that she’s seen similar scams happening on websites like Zillow.
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