Looking online for a new rental home? Beware, do not start the renting process online or you might lose your money. A techie in Bengaluru lost Rs 1.6 lakh while searching for a house for rent in the city.
Techie on hunt for rented flat
It can be difficult to find a suitable house in Bengaluru. One needs to deal with excessive rent, brokerage, and even absurd eligibility criteria such as high educational qualifications. Getting a house in the city can be even harder than getting a job. But that isn’t all. One also has to be watchful of scammers who are exploiting the high demand for housing and deceiving people for money.
In a recent case, a techie looking for a house for rent lost around Rs 1.6 lakh to these cyber fraudsters. The 25-year-old Techie, who is from Kolkata, recently landed a high-paying job at a leading IT firm in Kadubeesanahalli. He was preparing to move to the city and start his new role on June 1. But before relocating, he was on a house hunt and was looking for a good home to stay.
“My girlfriend and I planned to move to Bengaluru and I was looking online for rented houses. I spotted an attractive offer on the real estate portal NoBroker about a flat in Marathahalli. The monthly rent was Rs 25,000 and two months’ rent had to be paid in advance. I called the contact number provided and the owner identified himself as an Indian Army officer posted in Mumbai,” he told TOI.
Loses 1.6 lakh while searching for house
The Marathahalli house seemed ideal for the software engineer, who wanted to live near his workplace. So, in order to secure the house, he requested the army officer to proceed with the rental agreement.
“The Army officer connected me to someone who he claimed was the manager of his Bengaluru flat and the duo asked me to make a deposit of Rs 4,000 to seal the deal, which I did through GooglePay. They told me it was a (government) granted property and I needed to secure a paid visiting pass to come and see it; they said the sum was refundable. I believed them as I trusted the portal, which seemed to be reputed,” he added.
He acknowledges that he fell victim to fraud and made eight online purchases totaling an additional Rs 1.6 lakh. Following the money transfer, he was unable to contact the scammers.
NoBroker has since pulled down the advertisement of the Marathahalli flat but claimed that the customer was at fault as he paid the ‘owner’ multiple times without meeting him or visiting the property. Calls made to the contact numbers provided by the fraudsters went unanswered.
