Scammers Targeting Smartphone Apps

Here's a warning if you're looking for a new place to live.

The app you could be using may have been hacked by scammers. A shoreline woman nearly fell victim on Trulia.

Police tell us this is part of a phishing scam. One New London woman was looking for homes on the Trulia app but she quickly learned something was wrong when she was asked to send $1400 to West Africa.
 
"He had gotten my name, address telephone number and email address and that was it," said Lissette Mendoza, adding that she was very careful as to the kind of information she was giving out.
She thought the man was helping her rent a Waterford home on Vivian Street for $700 per month.
 
"It was the second email without me even giving him my date of birth and specifics about myself that he told me accepted me as a new tenant," Mendoza said but something didn't make sense when he asked for a $1400 security deposit.
 
"He would Fedex the paperwork in the mail to me from West Africa because that's where his job had taken him and that's where things didn't start to add up."
Police are urging Waterford residents to be careful. 
 
"The interesting thing with this one is that the website they used was a legitimate website," said Lieutenant Stephen Bellos of Waterford Police.
 
That website is Trulia--a site that lists neighborhood properties for sale and rent. Mendoza came across this Waterford home on the app but later discovered it was for sale and not for rent. "
 
"Somehow he intercepted the posting and I don't know how," she said.
 
Trulia told NBC Connecticut they have a team dedicated to double-checking listings to prevent fraud. Fortunately Mendoza saw the warning signs.
 
"The price for the house and the town that it was in; in Waterford you could never find that," Mendoza added.
 
Mendoza said her experience working at a bank helped her tremendously.
 
To protect yourself police say you should ask the other person for information and have them send it in the mail; usually they won't get back to you after that.
 
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