LaSalle woman allegedly scams families out of thousands in rental house fraud

Three families fall victim to rental scam A woman has been arrested after allegedly conning three families out of thousands of dollars in a rental scam. Sijia Liu reports.

A 43-year-old LaSalle woman has been arrested in connection to a home rental scam.

According to the police, two groups of people simultaneously arrived on Wednesday to a house on Huron Church Line under the impression they were moving in.

Both families gave the landlord the initial and final month's rent.

LaSalle Police conducted an investigation and discovered a third tenant had also paid rent. Police say the victims paid almost $5,000 to cover the first and last month’s rent. So far, only one of the victims has received their money back.

The three tenants had seen the rental home with the landlord after responding to a Facebook marketplace ad for it.

“The Facebook ad itself at face value was really not suspicious. It was like any other home for rent,” said sr. const. Terry Seguin. He notes, the home was listed at a reasonable price and did not seem “too good too be true.”

According to police, one of the victims reported the landlord began to respond slowly after they had paid the down payment and noticed various ads of the same property on different platforms.

Police are asking anyone who believes they may have been scammed to contact them at 519-969-5210.

“There may very well be additional victims that have yet to come forward,” said Seguin.

LaSalle Police have released a list of home rental fraud prevention tips: