14/08/2026
Please read and share the below. This ks extremely important to take note of.
🚨 ATTENTION TENANTS AND LANDLORDS - URGENT RENTAL SCAM WARNING 🚨
A prospective tenant lost R51,000 yesterday in a sophisticated property scam involving one of our agents, we have since found that this has happened to several agents across JHB and who have made social media posts about this as well.
The scam operates as follows:
The fraudster copies a legitimate property listing and advertises the property with the stolen description and photos on social media (like Tik Tok) as if they are an agency. In this case, the fake agency is PropertySolutions_; however, they may have several accounts that they operate from.
They then act as the middleman between the real agent and the real prospective tenant:
To the agent, the scammer pretends to be the tenant.
To the tenant, the scammer pretends to be the agent.
A genuine viewing takes place between the real agent and tenant.
Neither realises they had actually been communicating with the scammer.
After the viewing, the scammer sends the tenant an application form and requests payment (the fake agency documents)
The tenant transfers the funds, believing the payment was going to the legitimate agent.
Our agent was initially reported to the police because she was the person the tenant had physically met (and thought he was communicating on whatsapp with). It has since been established by the police that both parties were victims of the scam.
⚠️ Before paying any deposit or rental amount:
Verify that you are dealing with a reputable and legitimate property agency
When meeting with the agent for the viewing - confirm with the agent that you have their correct contact details and are in fact communicating with the agent doing the viewing
Fraudsters are now using genuine listings, genuine agents, and genuine viewings to make scams appear legitimate. This scam can also easily be applied to owners advertising their own properties, and these scammers are using both rental AND sales properties for their fake listings
Please share this warning FAR AND WIDE.
