Real estate scams continue to be the order of the day on the islands. On this occasion, a 35-year-old woman has been the victim of a scam when she was about to rent an apartment in Arrecife.
As she told La Voz, after living in Lanzarote for seven months, she decided to change her home and look for a new one on the Idealista real estate portal.
While exploring the different apartments published on the internet portal, she found a newly renovated home for "685 euros" with expenses included, the young woman says. Although at first the price seemed "somewhat cheap" considering it was for "herself alone", she decided to go ahead with renting the apartment, she explained.
Then, she contacted the owner and agreed to make a "reservation of 500 euros" so as not to lose the apartment and that "he would not rent it to another person", she reveals. Immediately afterwards, "he gave me the account number and I made the deposit", adds the woman.
They both talked about meeting the next day to "see the apartment" after the girl had the "kind of contract" that the owner sent her. Although before meeting, he kept insisting that "she pay him the rest of the money, another 870 euros", explained the affected woman. "I didn't want to pay him the 1,370 euros and I told him that at least I wanted to see the apartment," she adds.
That same day, the man did not finish confirming the meeting. "He made excuses, he told me he had to take his daughter to the doctor," she points out. Also, "he kept insisting that I deposit the rest of the money, but to his wife, providing me with another account number". Finally, "I decided not to deposit anything," she says.
"He kept insisting that I deposit the rest of the money, but to his wife, providing me with another account number"
In the following days, the real estate portal had already announced that it was a scam. "When I looked later on Idealista, I realized that they had warned me of the fraud," she acknowledges. Currently, it has been recorded that "it is a fraudulent offer", even the number of the man "no longer exists."
In addition, she laments, arguing that "I am very trusting with these things, I didn't distrust him at any time." "I have always rented apartments accompanied, it is the first time I do it alone and I never imagined that it could happen to me," she says sadly.
The events have been reported to the Civil Guard, with the aim of preventing something like this from happening again. "I don't want anyone else to go through what happened to me," concludes the young woman. As she relates in the reported events, the young woman, upon realizing the fraud, asked the owner for "the return of the money", an amount that she "never saw again."
