A W5 investigation reveals how a convicted fraudster, Colleen Hull, used a fake identity to defraud numerous people in a multi-year rental scam. Hull posed as a landlord on Airbnb, collected deposits from unsuspecting tenants, and then disappeared.
This is part two of a W5 investigation into how a convicted con artist bilked dozens of people in a landlord scam, digital loopholes that may make the scam easier to pull off, and how the justice system that may be letting fraudsters off the hook to the tune of millions of dollars across the country when it comes to repaying their victims.
Hosts on a major short-term rental platform may be kept in the dark about their guests’ true identity – a situation that a prolific Canadian con artist appears to have taken advantage of to fleece even more people in a multi-year crime spree, a W5 investigation has discovered. Records and receipts appear to show how convicted fraudster Colleen Hull was able to dupe Airbnb and the owner of a Toronto-area property to get access to the home, pose as a landlord to take deposits of tenants, and then disappear. “It was a shock,” said one potential tenant, Jacob Handy, who was among several people who tried to move into the Oshawa, Ont. home in November – only to find he wasn’t the only one. Handy had already paid a $1,000 deposit to secure the rental, but found he was among at least five other people who thought they had a lock on the property, only to discover they’d been tricked.“I knocked on the door. And then a gentleman answered and said, ‘Can I help you?’ And I said, ‘Hey, I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m supposed to be moving into this unit,” Handy recalled. “He said, ‘You’re the fifth person that’s been doing this.’” One of the other victims, Ryan Howe, grabbed a picture of Hull from a social media profile before it disappeared. W5 showed that picture to other would-be tenants, who identified Hull as the person who had shown them the place.Court records showed Hull had been accused of perpetrating a similar scam to a few people a month, off and on, adding up to more than 50 victims in the past four years. One of those victims also identified Hull from the pictur
FRAUD SCAM AIRBNB RENTAL VICTIMS
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