TV
If you are searching for a house on rent, you are advised to avoid house rent brokers and contact the house owner personally or else you may be the next target of these brokers.
The modus operandi of these rent brokers is to publish advertisements for houses to be let out on rent. If anyone contacts them either online or offline, ten to one, he is to fall prey to them.
The latest victim is Sikha Gupta Sharma, a software engineer from Jharkhand.
She was looking for a house to live with her family. From social media, she came to know that a house was lying vacant in Om Garden, Maitri Vihar.
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She contacted the number given and a person introducing himself as the house owner showed her the house and took Rs 11000 as advance.
When she along with her family and all her belongings arrived at the house she suffered the shock of her lifetime as she came to know that a cheater duped her using the ‘To-Let’ board hung by the original owner.
“A man posing as the owner of the house showed me the house and took Rs 11000 as advance from me. The next day when I came with all my furniture, I realised that he was a fraud,” said Sikha Gupta Sharma.
Another victim of these brokers is Subham Pothal, a resident of Jajpur district who works with a software company.
“When I found a vacant house near my house I was interested. I gave two months’ advance to the person who introduced himself as the owner of the house. The next day when I came to complete the agreement process, I couldn’t find him there. I also found his mobile phone switched off. Later, I came to know that the fraudster had taken advance from two to three other persons,” said Pothal.
Former police officer Sarat Sahu said, “If a dedicated portal is developed and it is mandatory for the house owners to register there, people searching for houses may be saved from being cheated.”
