Apartment hunting on the Central Coast can be a nightmare with housing being so scarce.
“I had to apply so fast for everything, it was really hard,” said Hailey Hall, who studies at Cal Poly.
Finding a place to rent is quite the challenge.
“I actually just moved down for the spring semester, so I had to do a lease take over because I didn’t have that many options, so I just took whatever they had at the time,” explained Yvonne Daskaloff, who is a student at Cuesta College.
Scammers feed off of that desperate need to move to the Central Coast.
“One of my friends who has been looking for housing, she messaged me and said hey isn’t this your house,” explained Maegann Jackson, whose home was listed for rent without her consent. “It was all pictures from when I first saw on the MLS, and I’ve owned it for three years.”
Jackson was shocked to find out that her Templeton home had been listed for rent online on Craigslist. The ad was posted on Jan. 29, 2022.
“They wanted $50 application fee for each adult that was going to live in the home,” said Jackson.
An ad almost too good to be true that was only up for about 12 hours.
“They wanted $1,350 for a three-bedroom, three-bathroom, which is pretty low for a three-bedroom and three bathrooms on five acres […] you can have livestock,” said Jackson.
Jackson’s friend communicated with the person behind the ad via text. When she asked if it was a scam because there seemed to be people living there, the person…
