Rental scam cheats would-be tenants out of $4,300 and leaves owners with a shocking surprise
CBC
An Ottawa couple recently listed their brand new rental property, but before they could rent it out, they found a family living there without their knowledge as a result of a bold and complex scam.
The con, based on a fake listing on Kijiji but with a puzzling twist, not only duped the family out of thousands of dollars in rent, but left the homeowners feeling stunned and violated.
The ordeal began in August, after Anuj and Saloni Mittal purchased a two-storey townhouse on Pastel Way in Ottawa's Barrhaven neighbourhood and listed it for rent.
A few weeks later, on Sept. 13, the couple's MLS agent, Dinesh Sharma, called them early in the morning with some shocking news.
He said a man claiming to be living in the couple's townhouse was complaining that his landlord was trying to change the terms of the lease and asking for more rent.
"Your client is acting up," Sharma recalled the man telling him.
But the Mittals hadn't even signed a tenant at that point. As far as they knew, no one had ever lived in the newly constructed building.
A 30-year-old woman has been charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life after her four-month-old baby was reported missing and later found dead in midtown Toronto Wednesday.
After nearly three months out of service, MV Confederation could begin operating between P.E.I. and Nova Scotia again as early as Dec. 2, as long as final steps go according to plan.
If a sport or activity isn't competitive, Liza Puri, 48, wants no part in it.
There's stiff competition among prospective home buyers in the St. John's region because the number of listings are unusually low and demand is surging.
Strong attendance and record sponsorship at the Northern Ontario Tourism Summit in North Bay is a good sign the industry is recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Destination Northern Ontario.
A group of Halifax residents is asking the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to look at a provincial decision to greenlight a controversial Fall River development.
Parkside Drive is closed in both directions following reports of a sinkhole, Toronto police say.
The Quebec government will present its fall economic update today.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence: