A woman residing in Arrecife has reported to the National Police a scam she claims to have suffered when trying to rent a home in the capital. Through an email, she contacted the supposed owner and paid 1,200 euros to rent the apartment, although on the day of the key handover, no one appeared at the property. This is a similar episode to the one suffered by another person in February of this year.
According to the new complaint, the woman searched for a home in Arrecife through the Milanuncios.com portal and found an apartment on Doctor Juan Negrín street in Arrecife, which had 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a storage room, a balcony, and was fully furnished, with a monthly payment of 600 euros.
The woman, who was interested in the apartment from the beginning, contacted the advertiser by email. The latter indicated, as stated in the complaint to the National Police, that if she was interested, she had to deposit the monthly payment and one month's deposit to secure the property, that is, 1,200 euros.
The complainant, given the need for housing, agreed to the payment, even though she had only seen the apartment through the online advertisement, which has now been removed from the network. The owner sent her a link to the Airbnb portal, known for being used for vacation rentals, and through there she made the payment of 1,200 euros.
The affected party formalized the payment on May 10th, into a current account of apparent Spanish origin, although according to the complainant's father to La Voz, they later verified that the account came from an Irish branch.
By email, both parties agreed that the key handover would take place on May 17th at 6:00 PM, at the entrance of the supposed apartment she had rented.
However, the alleged owner of the property did not appear at the appointment. Furthermore, the complaint states that at the location there was another woman who had also been summoned for the key handover of the same apartment, and who had met the same conditions.
The affected woman is currently living in a friend's apartment, as she states that "she has run out of money" to be able to rent another home in Lanzarote.
They pretended to request information about an apartment in Tenerife and the scammer responded the same way
Both the affected woman and her father contacted the supposed owner of the apartment again, posing as people interested in a home in Tenerife, which was also offered by the same person.
The alleged scammer responded to the email stating that she lived in Andorra, but that she was the owner of an apartment in Tenerife. The rental price was also 600 euros, and to be able to acquire it, a payment also had to be made in advance through the Airbnb platform.
Both the affected woman and the father requested images of the apartment from the alleged scammer, to which she responded via email with ten photographs of the supposed apartment for rent. "We are not going to recover the money, but we want people to know this so that they do not scam anyone else again," says the complainant's father.