More scams relating to real estate rentals. The latest victim is a resident of Plaine-des-Papayes who was defrauded of the sum of Rs 12,000 while wanting to rent a house in Grand-Baie.
It all started on Sunday May 19 when she met a resident of Mahébourg via WhatsApp. She offered to rent a house in Grand-Baie at a cost of Rs 8,000. “She asked me to immediately pay her Rs 12,000. The same day, I transferred the required amount via Juice to the account of a man named Jean Noël C. This lady then confirmed to me that she had received the transfer,” she relates.
Subsequently, her interlocutor invited her to visit the premises in Grand-Baie. However, once there, the latter was conspicuous by its absence. The victim tried to contact her by phone, but to no avail. “Her phone was off and that’s when I realized she had defrauded me,” explains the resident of Plaine-des-Papayes. The latter filed a complaint at the local police station.
Seized of this investigation, the sleuths of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of Pamplemousses examined the bank statements of the complainant. This is how the police, under the supervision of Inspector Seeparsand, traced the man named Jean Noël C. He is a mason, originally from Trou-D'Eau-Douce. During his interrogation, he allowed investigators to understand the mechanism of the scam. He blamed a woman who asked for his bank account number to pocket money from the victim. The lady in question is actively sought by the Pamplemousses CID.
Recently, house rental scams have become frequent. At the beginning of May, a resident of Quatre-Bornes was the victim of a similar scam. She made a deposit of Rs 10,000 to a certain Priscilla N. for the rental of a house, but never received the keys.
