Ryan ChartrandAs summer quarter is quickly approaching, many students are turning to Cal Poly’s housing Web site, Craigslist and facebook to post rooms for rent or find a sublease. With the rise of the online housing listings, some people creating housing posts have made themselves vulnerable to a new ploy by Internet scam artists, and the Cal Poly housing Web site is no exception.
“You would think that the Cal Poly site would be safer than a more open site like Craiglist because it is just for our college community,” said business junior Moses Torreblanca, who was recently the victim of an online con.
Last month, Torreblanca was looking for someone to sublease his room for the summer quarter and made a posting on the Cal Poly Housing and Residential Life Web site. He quickly received an e-mail expressing interest from someone under the name of Cheryl Bronke; although the price that Torreblanca and Bronke had ultimately agreed upon was a total of $1,575 for three months rent plus the deposit, Torreblanca soon received a cashier’s check for $5,000.
Bronke followed the check with another e-mail asking that Torreblanca wire $2,000 from her $5,000 check to the United Kingdom to cover her traveling expenses to the U.S. He agreed and after successfully cashing the check at The First Bank of San Luis Obispo, Torreblanca wired the money, which cost an additional $114, to whom he believed was a travel agent.
After a second e-mail from Bronke appeared asking for the remainder of the $5,000 wired to the United Kingdom to cover expenses for a car accident she claimed happened that week Torreblanca started to see that the numbers were not adding up. He returned to The First Bank of San Luis Obispo to discover that the check had been deemed fraudulent and that he was responsible for paying back $2,200 to the bank for the money he wired overseas.
The scam has put Torreblanca in a tight financial situation as the money he had saved for rent and living expenses is gone and he has additional monthly fees to pay the bank.
“The bank has been great about working this out with me and setting up a payment plan,” Torreblanca said. “I had heard of different kinds of online scams but not this; I am going to be more wary of who I talk to online and what sites I go to. Students should be suspicious if they receive checks or offers for a greater amount than necessary for the room; that can be a sign.”
This is not the first time that a Cal Poly student was fast out of cash from scams operated through the Cal Poly housing Web site. Last summer, then civil engineering junior Bruce Jones lost $3,000 to a similar con. Other students have received e-mails and been in e-mail correspondence with those trying to use similar strategies to get a renter’s money.
Aerospace engineering senior Erika Berg is no stranger to the world of online advertising for housing as she has subleased her room for the past two summers. This year, she posted her room for sublease on Cuesta Street on “in house” only Web sites like facebook and the university site for off-campus housing.
“I have had really good luck on the Cal Poly housing site in the past,” Berg said. “I used these sites specifically because I wanted my renters to be college students.”
Two weeks after Berg’s posting, she received an e-mail from a Lola Johnson claiming to be a student from the United Kingdom currently living in Africa with her father and planning on transferring to Cal Poly.
“At first I thought that this response was completely legitimate; I rented to an exchange student a couple years ago and it was great,” Berg said. “It was funny, last weekend I mentioned this situation to a friend and she explained that there are a lot of housing scams involving renters sending fraudulent checks.”
Johnson then e-mailed Berg Sunday letting her know that she would be sending $3,500 in money orders or travelers checks and would need Berg to deduct the deposit and wire her the remaining balance. That was a red flag for Berg and she has not responded to the last e-mail.
The scam, which is becoming increasingly frequent through housing Web sites, consists of the imposter sending a large amount of money, usually over the amount requested by the person subleasing, in fraudulent checks. The imposter then asks for the difference or an entire refund sent back to him or her. The imposter’s plan is to get the renter to send the refund before they realize the check is fraudulent and make away with the money.
“If there was a way to track and report her, I would,” Berg said. “With all the summer subleasing right now this is something that students should know about.”
In response to several student reports of scam artists operating through the Cal Poly housing Web site, about one year ago the site began issuing a warning on their page prior to students making a new posting.
“The disclaimer lets landlords know to be aware of the scam and report any fraud to the San Luis Obispo Police Department,” said Marilyn Allison, a staff member at Cal Poly housing.
The warning encourages students to validate any checks received by potential renters prior to sending a check of their own.
“If the deal sounds too good, then it probably is,” said Bill Proll, detective lieutenant at the San Luis Obispo Police Department. “These people are hard for us to investigate because it happens overseas.”
The San Luis Obispo Police Department receives reports of many different scams but only has a few instances of this particular online housing scam reported each year. Torreblanca filed a consumer complaint with the district attorney office in San Luis Obispo and was told he would be notified of any developments.
“People just need to stop and think; if anyone asks you to send them something first, you should be suspicious,” Proll said.