Con artists are always looking to find a way to make a quick buck, and real estate seems to be the hottest new target.  Raccoon Valley Radio has caught wind of a scam where local realtors are having their property listings falsely re-listed.  We spoke with Bob Nevitt who told us of just such an incident; Nevitt Real Estate discovered a property advertised as for rent for just $500 a month.

The problem is Nevitt Real Estate was selling that same property.  “It was really a scam, ” Nevitt explained.  “Then it had some out of the country phone number that you were supposed to call and of course they wanted you to wire them funds so you could get that property and rent it.”

Nevitt did some research and discovered that other real estate companies in Perry and even down in the Des Moines metro area were finding similar attempts to con people into sending in deposits on properties that they didn’t own.

Nevitt explained how people can make sure any property they are looking to rent is legitimate.  “My advice to people who see ads like that, if they look too good to be true, they are too good to be true.  And don’t ever send or wire cash or anything of that nature to somebody in an ad like that without contacting your real estate company.”

Luckily Nevitt Real Estate received just such a phone call from an inquiring party and the advertising listing was removed from the website.  The property being fraudulently advertised for sale came from the website www.craigslist.com, but false ads could well be listed on a variety of different locations.