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An Orange County lady was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stealing greater than $200,000 from folks via a rental rip-off.
Irvine resident Surong Li, 29, was arrested on fees of grand theft, possession of a pretend identification and theft by false pretense, in line with an Irvine Police Division information launch.
Li allegedly represented herself as a property supervisor and made lease agreements with victims for properties she didn’t signify, police stated. Li faked the existence of some rental properties or by no means transferred cash to the precise property proprietor, police stated.
To keep away from such scams, the Federal Commerce Fee recommends taking precautions, comparable to:
- Search on-line for “criticism,” “evaluate” or “rip-off” together with the title of the property proprietor or rental firm to see what different folks’s experiences are.
- Take a look at the property in individual or do a digital tour earlier than you pay or signal. Ask for a enterprise card issued by the rental firm and test the rental agent’s ID to ensure it matches data.
- Search county or metropolis tax evaluation web sites if coping with a personal landlord. Ensure that the owner’s ID matches the data.
- After getting the rental value, think about if it’s a lot decrease than the remainder of the rents within the space.
- By no means give monetary or private info to anybody who contacts you claiming to be working with the rental firm or proprietor. Contact the proprietor or firm with the contact info you could have.
- By no means pay with reward playing cards, money, wire transfers or cryptocurrency. Anybody who asks for cost that method is most certainly a scammer.
The California Division of Actual Property issued a statewide shopper alert final 12 months after seeing an increase in identification theft scams. Scammers have been taking info from present “on the market” listings and posting the residences for lease on different websites. Scammers additionally used properties that have been beforehand for lease and made it appear to be they have been again in the marketplace.
Typically, scammers use the title of the rental firm to get folks to switch lease, deposits and charges electronically. Different scams concerned utilizing fraudulent rental functions to get info comparable to driver’s license quantity, Social Safety quantity and checking account numbers to steal identities.
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