Scammers are targeting people looking for a place to live in Greater Manchester with fake listings. The frauds play on the region's housing shortage to try and con would-be tenants out of hundreds of pounds at a time.
The Manchester Evening News has discovered that fake ads are being place on Facebook Marketplace for homes to let. The posters ask people to contact them by WhatsApp - the encrypted messaging service which is supposed to be more secure than other forms of messaging - to enquire about the properties.
But when asked about viewing the property, the scammers insist cash must be handed over first, for what they claim is a 'refundable deposit'.
Here, the M.E.N's Stephen Topping looks at what the problem means for househunters and agents - reveals what happened when he approached an online scammer, and finds out what Facebook is doing about the problem. READ MORE: Stunning images of Manchester's huge new playground featuring 18m, see-through slide over River Medlock Having seen a post about the scam affecting someone in Droylsden, Tameside, I searched Facebook Marketplace for myself to look for other suspicious adverts.
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