Call Rafael: Homeowner fears his property was being used to scam people

INDIANAPOLIS — As rental scams go, it’s common for homes on the market to be targeted by a variety of get-rich-quick schemes.

The lack of affordable housing is among the drivers that lead people to trust “alleged sellers” offering a variety of properties, sometimes at bargain prices.

Brian Killilea has lived in his home on the 1400 Block of Riley in the Little Flower neighborhood for nearly 30 years.

The first sign of trouble was when this guy came to his front door looking to see inside.

“He knocks on the door. ‘Yeah, I live here.’ Are you moving out? Your house is for rent on Zillow. I said what?” Killilea said.

Someone has hijacked his home to possibly scam people out of money. The posting on Zillow and several other sites is misleading.

It uses his address, but the wrong exterior of the home and the inside pictures are not of the house on Riley.

“My girlfriend said: email Rafael,” Killilea said.

Killilea reached out to Zillow on July 9 via email.

The company called Killilea directly to tell him that once the Customer Care team investigated his concerns, it removed the listing by adding the words “Off Market.” That tells the consumer that the property is not available

It also turns out that this situation also targeted a local property management company with no connection to this problem.

Hazio Support tells us “the party who posted his address is also impersonating us by using our pictures and contact information.”

“Last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed people slowly driving look at their device, looking at the home. My biggest concern is that I don’t want people to be scammed out of their money. I’ve been scammed out of money and it’s no fun,” Killilea added.

Since reaching out to Zillow, it is working to remove the misleading pictures associated with the home.

Zillow shared the following statement with FOX59/CBS4, sharing additional resources to protect you and your family.

“Zillow strives to provide a safe online platform with accurate information, which is why we go to great lengths to prevent inappropriate listings from being posted and to inform users of how to protect themselves from scams online and offline. Our teams monitor activity in several different ways, actively screening for suspicious content, and if a listing is found to be fraudulent, it is removed from our sites as quickly as possible. We also work to inform consumers about how to avoid bad actors in the housing market: Our ‘How to Recognize and Avoid Rental Fraud’ page and ‘Beware of Scams and Other Internet Fraud’ page explain how to look out for red flags such as rental prices that seem too good to be true or requests for personal information or to wire money before you’ve toured the property.”