A group of property agents is crying foul after their profiles were allegedly misused by imposters to carry out rental transactions for properties in the Klang Valley.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Basically, we are a group of agents from one of the agencies in Malaysia.
00:11So the scammer basically will use agents' photographs, abuse our identity to open another
00:18account at iProperty platform.
00:20So they will list some of the rental properties on this platform and fish for all those tenants.
00:27So their way of fishing is maybe they put the rental price at the lower price so that
00:33the tenant will be interested to view the property.
00:36They will use our agent face to create another WhatsApp account.
00:40So when the tenant click on their iProperty listing, it will direct to the WhatsApp account.
00:45So the WhatsApp account, the picture is also same as the iProperty account.
00:49So maybe the tenant won't be so clever to verify.
00:52On the viewing that day, so-called scammer agent will not show up.
00:57They will appoint another assistant to assist for the viewing.
01:01But during viewing that day, the so-called two agents won't appear.
01:05They will assign for someone, maybe another worker or whatsoever to open up the unit for
01:10the tenant to view.
01:11So after the tenant view, then they will follow up with the tenant and asking for the deposit.
01:16They will also make up the booking form to let the tenant sign.
01:21So once the tenant sign, they will bring a bank in three and a half months of the deposit
01:27to the owner account.
01:28We also scratched our head how this scammer could get the property keys.
01:34It's proven they did because we already found two similar units on different platform.
01:39So the scammer will rent a property from Airbnb, okay?
01:44So basically they just check in, they get the keys, then they can show the tenant ID.
01:49Average amount being cheated is about 5,000 to 6,000 per case.
01:56From the information we received is that most of the victims are students.
02:03Many are foreign students and also local students also been affected, been a victim of it.
02:10So now we intend to call the association, this real estate association.
02:17As a real estate association, we intend to call them for a dialogue to alert all the
02:25members about this scam.
02:28This is one of the latest scams where they target all these real estate agents.
02:35And all have been innocently have been targeted and the victim all come after the wrong person.
02:43I urge the public before dealing with all the property agents to check and verify their
02:50rents number through this website, the Boards of Values Appraisal Estate Agent and Property
02:55Management, lppeh.gov.my.
02:59In that website, then you will see the agent's registration number and of course their telephone
03:04number.
03:05Verify from there.
03:06That is the legal source.