Chronicle: Scams against Hispanics looking for a home are on the rise

• Chronicle: Scams against Hispanics looking for a home are on the rise.
• Social media is full of scammers looking for victims.
• The Latino community is one of the most vulnerable groups.

With today’s historically high housing costs in the United States, including rising rents and mortgage payments, scammers looking to take advantage of the situation are proliferating like flies. Sadly, our immigrant people are more likely to fall into their clutches.

Scammers are using Facebook Marketplace to advertise their “great deals” whether it be houses, condos or apartments with unusually low rents. Those who read them are so excited to have found the ‘bargain’ of their lives that they forget that “all that glitters is not gold”, as the old and well-known saying goes.

Scammers take advantage of people’s ignorance

What the poor, naive victims don’t realize is that the scammers have details about the properties because they copied the information posted online by the real owners. They are also unaware that cybercriminals have contacts in real estate agencies.

This allows them to get access to lockbox codes so they can actually enter properties. When the potential victims come to see the place, they assume that they are dealing with the owners or property managers and fall squarely into their traps. Filed Under: Chronicle Rising Hispanic Scam

First they pay for the application and then for the deposit

Once scammers have managed to convince their «clients» that the properties are theirs, they send them an application by email for them to fill out. It doesn’t contain anything complicated or require a credit check. In fact, they accept everyone, but they charge them a fee.

When the interested parties send them the application fee, which is usually between $150 and $300, they send them another email saying they have been approved. Then they ask for a deposit and the first month’s rent. After receiving that full amount, the scammers completely disappear, leaving their victims waiting for the keys to their new home.

Several of those scammers have already been caught

Some of the victims sit idly by after being scammed, but others don’t. Thanks to this, the police have already made several arrests. The last of them was a man from Greensboro, North Carolina identified as 29-year-old Khalil Nadir Rynes.

Local authorities claim that this guy had become an expert in attracting and deceiving Hispanics. It is believed that over the last two years he has duped dozens of families by renting them houses that did not belong to him. So far, this guy has taken over $50,000 from Latinos. Filed Under: Chronicle Rising Hispanic Scam

The victims even moved

As the properties were vacant, in some cases the clients even moved in and made renovations, investing a lot of money. But, when the real owners appeared, they were forcibly evicted and literally left on the street.

But the police decided to investigate Rynes and, after determining that he was a scammer, they arrested him on Saturday. He is now in the Forsyth County Jail. A state judge granted him release after posting $102,500 bail, but on July 7 he will have to appear in court for his initial hearing. Filed Under: Chronicle Rising Hispanic Scam

Social media is used for all kinds of deception

We Hispanics must understand that social media is used by cybercriminals who are capable of making up all kinds of lies to get money from the unaware who sometimes ignore all the signs that should put them on alert.

For example, when someone won’t agree to meet in person because they’re out of state or out of the country, dealing with a family emergency, or when they ask for cash advances, via Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, or another app, and promise to send receipts, contracts, and keys later by mail. Let’s open our eyes wide. Thanks for reading my story today. Until next time. Filed Under: Chronicle Rising Hispanic Scam