‘I took every precaution’: Elaborate rental scam leaves student $2,000 poorer — and without a place to stay

Waterloo police are investigating reports of a rental scam that has left three students out thousands of dollars and at least one with nowhere to live next month - one example of a growing fraud problem across the country amid spiking rental demand.

One of the students, Armina Soleymani, told the Star she was robbed of her entire savings. Soleymani said more needs to be done to prevent others from falling into the same convincing trap. She said the scammer even gave her a tour of the apartment and showed her identification.

What makes me mad is I took every precaution to protect myself," said Soleymani, an international student and candidate for a system design engineering PhD at the University of Waterloo. She is now terrified she won't be able to find a place to live after her lease expires at the end of the month.

This kind of fraud is no isolated act. Rental scams are surging across the country as competition for housing increases, according to a recent report from rental platform liv.rent.

We're not only seeing an increase in the amount of rental scams, but also in the average dollar amount lost," said Matisse Yiu, marketing manager for liv.rent. January of this year saw an average loss of $1,230 - a 160 per cent increase from last year. That is wild."

Yiu said skyrocketing rental activity as Canada recovers from the pandemic has spurred the increase in fraud. Rental averages have increased as much as 40 per cent since 2020 in major rental markets, she said.

All this, coupled with an influx of more vulnerable people such as new Canadians and students in urgent need of housing near universities or colleges, has created a perfect environment" for scammers to take advantage of people, Yiu said.

International renters are unfortunately at greater risk - scammers target them, because they know they're a bit more desperate and unfamiliar with the laws here," said Yiu. The same is true for students, she added. Being an international student seeking housing makes you a prime target for scammers," Yiu said.

In early August, Soleymani, like many people nearing the end of their leases, turned to social media to find a new apartment. She said she found a personal ad offering a sublet on Facebook, indiscernible from thousands of legitimate ones posted to the website daily.

The scammer, calling herself by what now seems likely to be an assumed name, responded quickly, Soleymani said.

Here is where things diverge from the rental scam playbook. Many criminals try to extract money from their victims virtually. After all, rental scammers do not actually have apartments to rent, and therefore cannot offer tours.

Soleymani, however, met the woman at the unit the next morning, she said.

When I entered the unit, there was nobody there," said Soleymani. She said, Please be quiet, all my roommates are asleep right now.'"

The woman led Soleymani around, taught her how the apartment locks worked and indicated where she would leave the laundry card for her, once Soleymani took possession, Soleymani said.

Soleymani said she asked the woman, while still at the viewing, to provide identification. She produced a driver's licence bearing the same name as the Facebook account she used to communicate with Soleymani.

The Star obtained a photo of the licence and was able to determine it was valid.

Later, Soleymani said she realized the woman she met was about three inches shorter than the height listed on the ID. The woman wore a mask throughout the viewing, but Soleymani said she thought nothing of it at the time.

Soleymani said she was later told by the building manager that the woman was able to access the building because she had lived there for around three days as a subletter of a subletter."

Soleymani said the building manager informed her they had no information about the scammer's true identity.

Another man, Deepak Gupta, told the Star his son was also a victim of the same rental scam and lost $1,900 to a woman identifying herself by the same name.

The property management company, Blackline Management, did not respond to requests for comment from the Star.

Soleymani said she signed a realistic sublet agreement, likely copied verbatim from a genuine Blackline Management lease, and paid $2,000 for first and last month's rent in cash at the scammer's insistence with the stipulation that subsequent payments would be through Interac e-transfer.

She told me she's going to go live with her boyfriend in Toronto, so she wanted to get the agreement signed that day," said Soleymani. I hadn't been able to find another place to live up until then, so I said yes."

Soleymani added: I know that $2,000 is not a lot to a lot of people." She said police told her as much when she reported the theft. But to me, as an international student, that's a lot - it was all my savings over three years," she said.

It would have been enough money for Soleymani to visit her parents back home in Iran, she said. She hasn't been able to afford to see them in over a year.

Waterloo police are still searching for the scammer and note such frauds typically increase around back-to-school time. They describe her as a female, approximately 5'2" tall, with long brown hair." Police say there could be more victims.

As of Sunday the scammer appeared to be still active using a different first name, according to a rental posting in a Waterloo student Facebook group seen by the Star and Soleymani.

While it is not uncommon for landlords to accept rent payments in cash, police warn prospective tenants to be suspicious if asked to pay this way. The University of Toronto advises students never deal in cash, wire transfer or hard-to-trace equivalents such as Moneygram, bitcoin, or MoneyPak.

But even if Soleymani had paid in a more traceable fashion, her story may not have ended any differently.

The perpetrator of a series of rental scams in Waterloo in January had their six victims pay by e-transfer, and has still not been caught.

Out of options, Soleymani said she sought help from the University of Waterloo. First, she said, the university offered a loan that she'd have to repay despite having no savings. But on the same day that police issued a press release about the scam, the university offered her a $2000 bursary that she does not have to repay, she said.

While Soleymani's university was able to offer her money, it could not find her a place to live, she said. She is 161st on the campus housing wait-list.

We understand how difficult it is to find appropriate off campus housing in the current environment," said the University of Waterloo in a statement.

We will continue to be in touch with any affected student to help them access resources and supports that we are able to provide."

As of Tuesday, with only a week remaining on her current lease, Soleymani has still not found a place to live.

Ben Cohen is a Toronto-based staff reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @bcohenn