A Murray Bridge resident desperate to find a rental property has fallen victim to an online scammer.

With rental housing almost impossible to find at the moment – just seven local properties were being advertised at realestate.com.au on Wednesday afternoon – at least one resident has turned to Facebook.

They saw a post which claimed that a house was available for rent.

The local person transferred a cash deposit to secure it – but the ad was fraudulent, and they lost their money.

SA Police advised everyone to be cautious about making payments online:

• Ask to inspect the property in person before handing over money

• Copy and paste the advertisement’s exact wording into a Google search, to see if the same text appears anywhere else with different images or contact information

• Search for the property agent’s phone number yourself and call or visit them

Anyone who believes they have been the victim of an online fraud should report it immediately at www.cyber.gov.au/report.

• More information about scams and online crime: www.police.sa.gov.au.

• More information about renting a house: www.sa.gov.au.

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