Elderly Suspect Swindles Man In Buffalo Grove Rental Scam
How Renter Got Scammed: Police
(CBS) -- Buffalo Grove police say a 40-year-old man is out $2,500 because he was the victim of a rental scam on Craigslist.
It wasn't quite a week ago when the man moved into the townhouse off Buffalo Grove Road, about a mile south of Route 22. He'd seen the ad on Craigslist and paid his money.
Two days after that the real owner showed up and called police.
Buffalo Grove Police Lt. Tom Nugent says the renter was fooled, partly because the person who showed him the townhouse didn't look like your typical scam artist. It was an elderly female, who claimed she represented the owner.
"It's unusual for someone from that demographic to be deceitful," Nugent says.
But she was, Nugent says. And so was whoever she was working with.
Nugent says the renter was out the $2,500 deposit and rent money.
He says it's not clear exactly how the scammers got into the property in the first place. Once they did, they changed the locks and commenced the scam.
