A Kiwi woman has been caught up in a new scam targeting people in Australia looking for a rental home.
House hunter Anna Ainiu recently moved across the ditch to Ormeau, Queensland, but she didn't expect a scam on arrival.
"That was pretty scary", she told 7News.
She found what seemed to be a legitimate rental property on Facebook Marketplace, and messaged a man who claimed he was the owner.
"He was asking for my bank details and to send through my passport and everything. I was like, 'hmm."
Ainiu didn't end up handing over her details, but others have been scammed out of thousands of dollars.
Gold Coast real estate agent Brennan Hill manages the property for the real owner.
He told 7News he's had a couple calls from people who saw the home on Facebook and who messaged someone "pretending to be the homeowner".
"[The scammers] did advertise that property significantly lower than the market value," Hill said.
Only 1 percent of rental homes are currently vacant across Australia.
Hill said renters are so "anxious" to secure a rental property that "perhaps there are little red flags that they're overlooking".
According to Lori Lynam from the Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA), the scammers are posing as fake property managers.
"And they're often asking for people to pay bonds."
They often use photos from old tenancies, or tenancies that don't exist, Lynam added.
The RTA recommends prospective renters check the property is legitimate by searching the address on Google, inspect the home in person, and get a tenancy agreement before paying any money.
Two weeks ago, New Zealand police warned the local Chinese community about rental scams being advertised online, particularly in Auckland.
Reports to police showed scammers were posing as landlords or agents, often using the app WeChat to message victims.
