Scammers are coming up with more and more ways to trick people; a trend that's consistent with the cases the Estevan Police Service has been working on.

Cst. Danielle Stephany said that a scam was reported to the Estevan Police Service on Wednesday where someone paid a downpayment for a rental electronically. The person found out that the home was not actually for rent, despite being for sale.

This was the second scam of this nature to come across Stephany's desk over the last few days.

Stephany said the scammers will often use photos of houses or apartments that are for sale.

She said it's important to do your due diligence in order to distinguish a legitimate posting from a predatory ad.

One thing you can do is contact realtors in the area.

"Most of the time they know all the apartments that are for rent. And if not, they can at least direct you to other people to contact," said Stephany. "I know the one scam that was reported to us, that's what the caller had done. She had called the local realtor, and they were the ones that informed her that it was a scam."

Stephany said you can also contact the town or city you're looking at moving to, and someone from the municipal office should be able to connect you with someone you can trust.

Scams, in general, are often very difficult to investigate. Stephany gave props to police in Saskatoon for recently arresting three men who allegedly defrauded victims out of over $100,000 through the grandparents/family emergency scam.

"I can't even imagine the amount of work they put into that file to locate these people, because they're good at what they do."

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