Rental scams: How central coast residents can avoid getting scammed on Facebook

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION-TV) Facebook Marketplace is a place where people look for housing to rent, but could also be a place where users take advantage of others looking for a place to live.

One agricultural worker was scammed over $2,000 but worked together with Salinas PD to catch the scammer.

Juan Carlos Vega was looking for a house to rent in Salinas on Facebook Marketplace. Vega went to go see the supposed house with the seller but told him he couldn't go inside to see it.

"He made it seem like it was his house and that’s when I asked him to go inside and tour the house but he told me we couldn’t go inside because they had barely fumigated," said Vega.

Vega gave the seller around $2,700 in cash, for a deposit on the home.

"On Sunday morning, I contacted him, I wanted to ask him some questions about the house and that’s when he blocked my number," said Vega.

At that moment, Vega realized the post was a scam.

"I was feeling so down without any motivation to go to work because of the money that I lost," said Vega.

After several days, the scammer contacted Vega and that's when he and Salinas Police decided to team up against Vega to catch the scammer.

"...get him to come back in the hopes of getting more money from the victims so the victim did a good job in this case in at least getting the true identity of the person that was committing the fraud, which helped us out," said Officer Byron Gansen.

Police were able to track down and arrest the suspect with the help of Vega.

However, how can people avoid being scammed like this on Facebook Marketplace?

 Some of the red flags that people should look out for are:

Most importantly, the Salinas Police Department says if it's too good to be true, it is.