On Sept. 2, a man reported to the Forest Park Police Department that he paid someone on Facebook Marketplace $400 in Walgreens gift cards to rent a property on Rockford Avenue, only to discover that someone lives there.
The man responded to a listing described as “low income for rent,” according to the police report. Before seeing the apartment in person, the man corresponded over text with someone who asked him to send the gift card payments. The man did, but he hasn’t heard back and found someone living in the Rockford Avenue property when he went to visit.
Incidents like this, where people are scammed into sending money for properties posted on Facebook Marketplace that are already rented, have been on the rise in Forest Park this summer.
There have been five of these rental scams since August, according to police reports.
Christopher Chin, the Forest Park Police Department’s deputy chief of police, said there have been 15 cases of fraud or deceptive practices this year — the same number as last year at this time — though not all of them are necessarily rental scams.
“It seems like it is a recent uptick,” Chin said of rental scams. “It seems like those started in the summer.”
But while there have been more rental scams this summer than the rest of the year, the scams themselves are not new in the area.
Chin said the cases that stick out to him are those where renters in Forest Park have been scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars by someone who’s been evicted and is “subletting” their apartment.
“It just seems to have gotten a resurgence now. It’s almost just like that revolving door,” Chin said. “Your old crimes come back, and they just come back a little bit different.”
Other incidents
The most recent victims of rental scams in Forest Park are Latino. Chin said a language barrier makes those who don’t speak English more susceptible to deceptive practices.
“If you’re in a foreign country and you don’t speak the language, you’re kind of at the whim of whomever you’re speaking with,” Chin said.
On Aug. 16, Officer Jesus Arroyo was dispatched to the police station to talk with a woman who only spoke Spanish and had Venezuelan identification, according to the police report. She told Arroyo that, two days prior, she went to see a house on Dunlop Avenue that she found on Facebook Marketplace after sending two Zelle accounts $400 for the application fee, $1,000 for a deposit, $1,560 for the first month of rent, and a $250 cleaning fee.
The woman told police that she signed a lease contract over email but hasn’t heard back and is now out $3,210.
Officer Arroyo was also dispatched to Rockford Avenue Sept. 2 to interview the fraud victim, who only spoke Spanish, according to the police report.
On Aug. 21, two immigrants from Venezuela went to see a house that they had paid $1,100 for in the 1500 block of Marengo Avenue, only to realize someone was living there, according to the police report.
Officers said they communicated with them through Google Translate to discover that the two people found the property on Facebook Marketplace. When they responded to the listing, the man who posted the property asked them to Zelle him $1,100 for the security deposit and application fee, although the pair hadn’t filled out an application or signed a lease.
The man they were in contact with told them to break a lock box near the back door for the property’s key. When the two told him they didn’t want to, the man said his brother would bring over a key, which they haven’t received.
Many of the phone numbers that victims of these rental scams have been given are associated with burner phones in foreign countries, said Village Administrator Rachell Entler.
“There’s not a lot for them to latch onto as far as following up with charges, unfortunately,” Entler said about the Forest Park Police Department.
How to avoid scams
Entler advised those who come across rental listings to verify them by checking the addresses with property owners or rental companies. She said that renters should be wary if the person they’re in contact with can’t meet in-person or asks for money before a potential renter sees the property.
“Any time somebody asks you to send money, once you send it, it’s hard to get it back,” Entler said. “Do a little research into who you’re dealing with before you click ‘send.’”
Property owners are also working to inform people on how to tell if a rental deal is legitimate.
The property in the 1500 block of Marengo Avenue had a sign on the window from Invitation Homes, the building’s rental agency, according to the police report.
The sign reads, “Invitation Homes DOES NOT advertise on Facebook or Craigslist. Invitation Homes DOES NOT use phone apps or bank account transfers for funds. Please call our corporate number to validate the listing information.”