ALICE, Texas — Two Alice properties are being used in a fraudulent TikTok rental scheme, and the city's police chief is calling for greater public awareness to stop scammers from targeting residents.
Videos of the two homes were posted on TikTok by a user named Scott D. Furman, listing the properties for rent. The green house on West Fourth Street was listed at $1,200 a month, and the brick house on Carlos Trail was listed at $2,000 a month. Both homes are actually for sale, not for rent.
Alice Police Chief Eden Garcia was among the first to be alerted to the scam. He said the scheme follows a pattern he has seen before.
"So we do have realtors here in, in, in our community that they post about their home. The homes are for sale, and, uh, scammers gather this information and now they put a fictitious phone number. People can call it naturally. Someone's gonna answer and it's a scam," Garcia said.
The realtor responsible for the West Fourth Street listing is Alice Mayor Cynthia Carrasco, who alerted Garcia to the fraudulent posts.
Garcia said he is fed up with members of his community falling victim to scams and is pushing for broader awareness efforts.
"We've had elderly that have sent thousands of dollars to these scammers and that's something that we really need to focus on and I'm glad you're here today because we need to bring awareness and I know we talk about this. I know we put it on social media. Media, but we need to bang this out even further," Garcia said.
Both properties have since been removed from the fraudulent listings. Alice police say artificial intelligence is making it easier for identity thieves to carry out scams, and they encourage residents to reach out to the department with any questions about whether a rental advertisement is legitimate.
