Rent Safe: How to Avoid Rental Deposit Scams in New Brunswick

What is a rental deposit scam?

A rental deposit scam is a fraud in which someone advertises a rental unit they do not control, collects a deposit, application fee or first month’s rent from a prospective tenant, then stops responding. The unit is usually real but is either not for rent or is being advertised by someone with no connection to it.

The defining feature is the order of events: money moves before access does. A legitimate landlord has no reason to collect funds from someone who has not seen the unit, been approved, and signed a lease. Scammers invert that sequence and use urgency to keep the tenant from noticing.

How do rental deposit scams work in Moncton and New Brunswick?

Fraudsters copy photos and descriptions from genuine listings on Facebook Marketplace or online classifieds, re-post them as their own, and pressure the renter to send an e-transfer before viewing. Once the money is sent, the fraudster blocks contact. E-transfers are preferred because they are fast and difficult to reverse.

How can I tell if a rental listing is fake?

The strongest signals are a demand for money before an in-person viewing, artificial urgency, rent noticeably below the local market, photos that look like they came from a real estate site, and a landlord who will only communicate through one app or a profile with little history.

• ✗Payment before viewing. Any request for a deposit, application fee or first month’s rent before you have stood inside the unit.
• ✗Manufactured urgency. “Many people are interested”, “first come, first served”, “send a deposit to hold it”.
• ✗E-transfer only. Insistence on e-transfer, especially to a personal name that does not match the advertised landlord or company.
• ✗Rent well below market. A price far under comparable units in the same neighbourhood.
• ✗Borrowed photos. Images that appear staged or lifted from a real estate listing. A reverse image search often finds the original.
• ✗No verifiable identity. The landlord will not give a full name and phone number, or will not meet in person.
• ✗Excuses for absence. The “owner” is out of province or overseas and cannot show the unit, but will mail keys after payment.

How do I verify a rental listing before paying?

Verify in four steps: view the unit in person, confirm the landlord’s identity, check the civic address against public property records, and pay only through a traceable method after a lease is signed. Completing all four removes nearly every version of this fraud.

1. 1. View the unit in person before any payment

   A legitimate landlord will let you see the unit before money changes hands. If an in-person viewing is impossible, a live video walkthrough where you direct the camera is the minimum substitute.

2. 2. Confirm who you are dealing with

   Ask for the landlord’s full name and phone number. Where a building is professionally managed, contact the management company or superintendent directly using a number you looked up yourself, not one supplied in the ad.

3. 3. Check the address against property records

   Search the civic address in public property records to confirm the property exists and that the ownership is consistent with what you have been told.

4. 4. Sign a lease, then pay traceably

   In New Brunswick a standard-form lease is used for residential tenancies. Pay only after it is signed, using a method that leaves a record, and keep every receipt and message.

Who legally holds my security deposit in New Brunswick?

Your landlord does not keep it. Under New Brunswick’s Residential Tenancies Act, a security deposit must be delivered to the residential tenancies officer within fifteen days of receipt, and is held in a security deposit fund administered by the Residential Tenancies Tribunal — not in the landlord’s own account.

This is one of the most useful facts a New Brunswick renter can know, because it contradicts the scammer’s script directly. Section 8 of the Act provides that where a tenant delivers a security deposit to a landlord or the landlord’s agent, the landlord “shall deliver or cause to be delivered this amount to the residential tenancies officer within fifteen days of receipt thereof”, and that any person who receives security deposit money on a landlord’s behalf must do the same. The Act also requires the officer to maintain a security deposit fund recording the landlord, the tenant and the address of the premises for each deposit held.

A person who insists that you e-transfer a deposit for them to hold personally, and who cannot point you to the Tribunal, is describing an arrangement the statute does not permit. That alone is grounds to stop and verify.

Read the statute: Residential Tenancies Act, RSNB 1975, c R-10.2, section 8. See also the Tribunal’s Tenant’s Information Bulletin on security deposits (PDF).

What should I do if I already sent money to a rental scammer?

Contact your financial institution immediately and ask whether the e-transfer can be cancelled or reversed — some banks can still flag a transfer that has not been accepted. Then report to your local police detachment with your evidence, and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

1. Call your bank first. Speed matters; an unaccepted e-transfer can sometimes be stopped.
2. Gather your evidence. Screenshots of the advertisement, all messages exchanged, email addresses, phone numbers, payment details, and receipts or bank transaction confirmations.
3. Report to police. File with your local detachment and include the evidence above. In the Moncton area that is the Codiac Regional RCMP, 506-857-2400.
4. Report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Reporting feeds national fraud intelligence even when your own funds cannot be recovered.
5. Warn the platform. Report the listing so it is removed before it reaches the next renter.

How do I report a rental scam in New Brunswick?

Report to two places: your local police detachment, which can investigate the offence, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which collects national fraud data. If the listing appeared on MapleRentals.ca, report it to us as well so we can remove it.

How does MapleRentals.ca protect renters?

Rent Safe is our standard for listings on this site: we screen submitted listings for the patterns described above, we never ask a renter to send a deposit through the site, and we act on reported listings. No platform can inspect every unit, so we publish the verification steps rather than ask you to take our word for it.

We would rather tell you plainly where the limits are. A listing appearing here is not a guarantee of a landlord’s identity or intent. The four verification steps above are what actually protect you, and they work on any platform, including ours.

Frequently asked questions about rental scams

Sources and evidence

Every factual claim on this page traces to one of the following. All links were checked on 7 September 2026.

• Codiac Regional RCMP — warning about rental-deposit scam (February 2026, updated 6 March 2026). Source for the case details, the arrests, the approximate $7,000 loss, and the prevention guidance.
• Residential Tenancies Act, RSNB 1975, c R-10.2 — Government of New Brunswick. Section 8 governs security deposits, the fifteen-day remittance requirement and the security deposit fund.
• Tenant’s Information Bulletin: Security Deposit (PDF) — Residential Tenancies Tribunal, Service New Brunswick.
• Residential Tenancies Tribunal — Government of New Brunswick service page.
• Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre — Report a fraud.
• RCMP — Scams and fraud.

This page is general information for New Brunswick renters, not legal advice. For a decision about your own tenancy, contact the Residential Tenancies Tribunal.