Alarm bells raised about Facebook-based P.E.I. cottage rental scam
CBC
Two women who lost money to a Prince Edward Island cottage rental scam are sounding the alarm.
They say the perpetrator reached out to them through the P.E.I. Cottage Rentals Facebook page, promised a cottage rental and took their money, and then completely shut off all communication with them.
Jenna Lightfoot, who thought she was renting a cottage in Bonshaw, said she couldn't believe someone would actually do this.
"I was upset and angry, because as an Islander you tend to trust people, big time," she said.
Lightfoot said the person reached out to her in a private message after she posted on the Facebook page that she was looking for a cottage to rent on the Island for July. They exchanged phone calls, texts and emails, which included images of the property in Bonshaw and a business reference.
Feeling it was safe to book, Lightfoot paid for the rental through the Square platform and received an email receipt.
"She seemed legit. She provided me her business licence, she provided me where she worked, and I'm like 'Okay, someone's not going to scam me if they're telling me where they work because they know I can find them.'"
But shortly after booking, Lightfoot said she saw Facebook posts from other people claiming that the person offering the Bonshaw rental should not be trusted. Others described a pattern of reservations being cancelled at the last minute for reasons such as the detection of bed bugs, followed by no communication from the apparent host.
"It got me very concerned," she said.
Lightfoot reached out to the person multiple times after learning of this, and never received a message back. She was out almost $1,300.
She isn't alone. Krista Bartley told CBC News she was scammed for over $1,700.
Bartley had also posted on the Facebook page that she was looking for a place where she could spend some time with family members, and was contacted by the same person Lightfoot described. She also paid with her Mastercard on Square and also received an email receipt confirming she was booked for July.
There were no red flags during the transaction, Bartley said.
"She sent me all the information. We talked back and forth. She told me that she owned a [business] in Charlottetown and that I was free to call her at her [business] and to make sure she was a legit person," she said.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.
Allison Hill says she tries to make people’s experience at the Thunder Bay Food Bank “as pleasant as possible.”
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.
Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.
Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are waking up without power on Saturday morning after high winds and rain hit the province on Friday night.