Ontario · for renters
Fake listings do not really vary. They all need the same thing to happen: money has to move before you have stood in the room. Everything else — the story, the price, the urgency — exists to get you there.
No money before you have seen the room in person. Not a deposit, not a holding fee, not first month's rent, not an application fee, not "just to take it off the market". Hold that line and almost every version of this fails, whatever the story is.
If someone asks you for a damage deposit, a security deposit or a pet deposit, that is not a normal request in Ontario. For a tenancy the Residential Tenancies Act covers, none of them are permitted. The only deposit a landlord may take is last month's rent, capped at one month, plus a key deposit no larger than what a replacement key actually costs.
It is a useful signal because it does not require you to judge anyone's story. A real landlord in Ontario generally knows this rule. Someone who has never rented anything out here does not. The deposit rules in full.
Thirty seconds, and it is the single highest-yield check. Fake listings are assembled from photos lifted off a real listing somewhere else. If the same kitchen is for sale in Calgary, you have your answer.
In person. If that is genuinely impossible, insist on a live video call where they walk from the room to the front door and out to the street, so you can see the number on the house. A recorded walkthrough proves nothing.
Street view the address. If the listing says detached and the map shows a tower, stop. Ontario's land registry can tell you who owns a property if you want to go further.
An accepted e-transfer is effectively gone. Get a receipt naming the property and the person, and get the agreement in writing before anything moves.
Contact your bank immediately — speed is the only thing that ever helps. Report it to your local police, and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Report the listing to whatever site it was on, too. That is the step people skip, and it is the one that gets it taken down before it reaches the next person.
No. Every version of this scam needs money to move before you have stood in the room. If you genuinely cannot attend, a live video call where the person walks through the room and out to the street is the minimum, and even then hold the money until keys change hands.
For a tenancy the Residential Tenancies Act covers, it is not permitted. The only deposit allowed is last month's rent, capped at one month, plus a key deposit limited to the actual cost of replacing the key. Someone confidently asking for a damage deposit is either unaware of the rules or not a real landlord.
Run a reverse image search on them. Scam listings are usually assembled from photos taken from a real listing somewhere else, often in another city or another country, and the search will show you the original.
An e-transfer is effectively irreversible once accepted, which is exactly why it is the payment method scammers ask for. Requests for cryptocurrency, gift cards or a wire are stronger signals still — there is no legitimate reason to want rent in gift cards.
Report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and to your local police service. Report it to the platform it was posted on as well, which is what gets the listing taken down before it reaches someone else.
This is general information, not legal advice. The Ontario deposit rules referred to here come from the Residential Tenancies Act, which is published on ontario.ca. We have deliberately not quoted rental-fraud loss statistics on this page: the figures in wide circulation could not be traced back to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, whose 2025 top-ten report does not break rental fraud out separately.
Message whoever posted it through the app, so your email and phone number are not published on a listing for anyone to harvest. Free to browse.
Browse roomsOr get it on your phone.