Bhubaneswar: Abhisek Dhal, 27, an employee of a city-based private company, toiled hard for a month to get a house on rent in the city and finally struck a deal for a rented accommodation through a classified website. Dhal contacted the person on the mobile number provided on the website and subsequently went to Acharya Vihar to take stock of the facilities of the house.

After finding the house satisfactory, Dhal paid a two-months' advance of Rs 12,000, only to find the mobile number of the person to be switched off. He rushed to the house to meet the owner and got to know that he had been cheated by a conman.

"The owner told me that the person who took the advance money from me had approached him a week ago to take the house on rent and had clicked the photographs of the accommodation. The house owner also told me that he had introduced me as his friend who will share the house with him when we went to the house," alleged Dhal.

Like Dhal, several others are falling prey to such fraud in the city where finding suitable rented accommodation is getting tougher every day. Police said several cases of cheating related to sell of vehicles through classified websites have been reported.

"The trend of cheating on the pretext of giving house on rent is a recent one and fraudsters are earning good money in this fashion. As the money lost by the victim is not huge, the resultant reluctance in seeking legal assistance has become a boon for the fraudsters," said a police official.

The police said the fraudsters approach landlords and manage to get few photographs and upload those on a classified website. The fraudsters pose themselves as the owners and negotiate.

Deputy commissioner of police Anup Kumar Sahoo urged victims to lodge complaints. "We advise house seekers to verify the ownership of the house before paying money."