A story of scam @ Kijiji

Credits: DepositPhotos.com

Hi guys,

Today, I feel very blessed that I saved myself from fraud! Thanks to some fellow Indian mate who wrote a post in 2017 which saved me around 3850 CAD ( more than 200000 INR).

We recently bought our first home in Canada. We were very happy with our decision. As the place was having 4 rooms and we were just two, we thought of giving other rooms on rent. Eventually, we posted the ads for renting out our newly furnished rooms on Kijiji and Facebook marketplace.

The response was overwhelming for us, a lot of people inquired and were ready to confirm the place without viewing. Out of all those responses, one of the girls named “Kr****ngi Manish Patel”, who was an Indian-American student. She was moving to Canada for her studies and wanted to confirm the place. She asked us all the questions one can ask about the place. She sounded really nice girl and communicated with us over the email for a couple of days. To confirm the place we asked her for some deposit. She soon informed us that her dad would draft a certified cheque on our name and we can use it as a deposit.

We asked for around 700 CAD as deposit and the rest she could give her once she moves in. To our surprise, she sent us a cheque of around 3850 CAD. When we asked about why this much amount was sent to us, she said we can keep the rent for first+last month and the remaining balance we need to pay to a dealer who would get her car delivered to our place few days before her arrival. We agreed and requested her ID proof, she sent the Kenyan driving licence. We again asked for some US or Canadian ID but she did not respond.

As the cheque was received, we were quite sure of her coming to our place. We started to draft the rental agreement for her to review. And at that time we thought of checking her presence on social media. The moment we searched her name on Google, the first post that popped out was a fraud alert!

We dug deeper and read the post. To our shock, we were about to get SCAMMED!!!!! The story posted on the blog was almost same as ours and at that time we realised how stupid we were. FYI, the cheques in Canada could be cancelled even when it gets deposited into your account and you can go in a negative balance. This is a general practice here and we were not aware until we read about the scam that happened with other people.

Today we thank God and the person who wrote the post in 2017. We request everyone out there to stay safe and secure in this ad world. Do not take any cheques until the person moves along with you.

I hope someday this post would help someone!

Link to the blog which saved me: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/story-of-scam-happened-to-me.1154840/