Article content

Low vacancy rates and high rents are just two of the challenges facing Metro Vancouver students as a new school year begins.

As Telka Pesklevits and Daragh Drummond discovered, there are scammers and rip-off artists out there as well.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Mike Smyth: Welcome to the rental jungle – high rents, low vacancy and lots of scams Back to video

The two Douglas College students have been searching for weeks for a suite to share as they get set to return to the classroom. They have had no success trying to navigate the city’s rental jungle, where many hazards lurk.

“I found one place online that looked pretty good, so I emailed the landlord,” Drummond told me. “He wrote back, ‘I’m a pastor and I had to make a quick trip to Georgia. I can send you the keys, I just need your bank information first.’”

Ah, the old out-of-town-minister angle, one of the oldest tricks in the grifters’ book to earn an unwitting victim’s trust.

“Too good to be true,” Drummond said. “Even the photos in the listing were fake.”

“Oh, yeah, there are a lot of scammers,” added Pesklevits, saying their visits to suites that really do exist and actually are for rent have been discouraging.