GREENSBORO, N.C. — It's time for 'My 2 Cents.'
Over the last few weeks I've been trying to find a new place to live and a moving company but I've found more scams than I have legit companies.
Out of the dozens of calls and emails I exchanged with people, only about five were real places trying to help me. The others were trying to take my money or my identity.
Fortunately - mainly because of Tanya Rivera and 2 Wants To Know - I knew what to look out for.
RED FLAG #1: The company who pressured me to hire them by lowering the price and telling me the deal would be gone if I hung up to think and called them back.
RED FLAG #2: The supposed "landlord" who told me he wouldn't send me more information about the apartment until I ran my credit score through a sketchy website and sent him a photo of my passport.
RED FLAG #3: The "too good to be true" listing that I learned wasn't true by running the photos through reverse image search and finding the same apartment in multiple locations across the country.
I'm glad I knew the red flags to look for but boy did it make me mad thinking about people who didn't and the scammers who took advantage of that.
I know this probably won't change the actions of the bad guys who are trying to trick people out of their money or identity - although, let me just say, you're the worst. But maybe it'll help your red flag warnings pop up when someone tries to do this to you.
