The Chicago woman’s face is blurred, but her surprised voice can be heard on a viral video showing Cook County Sheriff’s deputies carrying out an eviction order for a small apartment building.
“We just moved in here in January,” explains the woman, carrying a few items as she exits the front door. “I gave my fiancé $2,000 to give to the landlord, whoever owns this building.”
But her rent didn’t go to a real landlord, says Matthew White, the process server who delivered the bad news on behalf of the building’s actual owner — a bank — and uploaded the video to TikTok on March 3 to raise awareness. Scam artists had broken into the vacant building, replaced the locks and rented it out before anyone noticed, White says.
For all the awful things the coronavirus pandemic has wrought on Chicago, you can add one more: brazen rental scams.
Local housing experts say the scams picked up speed after the pandemic shutdowns began in the spring of 2020. Vacant properties, including foreclosed apartments and houses, weren’t being closely watched — and criminals pounced.
In a typical scam, fraudsters break into an empty apartment or home, replace the locks and advertise the property online. Prospective tenants sign a lease, pay a security deposit and make monthly rent payments to the supposed “landlord,” sometimes…
