The police are looking into reports that a woman defrauded several people of money they paid in advance to rent an apartment.

According to the reports, the woman took a deposit on a flat from different people over the past few days, only to “disappear” and lose touch with the potential tenants who handed over the money.

One woman who spoke to this newspaper said she viewed an apartment in Marsascala a few days ago, which was advertised on social media as being “dog-friendly”. She said she paid a €400 deposit last Monday but when she tried to contact the female owner of the apartment after handing over the money, she had no reply.

Contact was also attempted through Facebook, where the interested tenant said she had first learnt of the apartment, but to no avail.

She, therefore, decided to visit the place where the apartment’s owner was employed and was informed there were other people alleging they too had been defrauded in similar fashion, the disgruntled prospective tenant said.

She was six months pregnant and paid the owner €400 but still ended up homeless

This “devastated” the woman as she realised her family would end up homeless come October 1 because their landlord had already rented out the place as they were meant to move out by the end of the month.

The woman, who has filed a police report, described the apartment owner’s actions as “cruel”, especially since she had even spoken to her daughter about how she could decorate her new room.

Through it all, nothing indicated the owner was a con and she was quite nice to the prospective tenants, the woman noted.

This feeling was shared by other people who allegedly fell into the same trap and spoke out on Facebook when a photograph reportedly showing the apartment owner went viral last week.

One social media user said she was six months pregnant and paid the owner €400 but still ended up homeless. She said she had viewed the apartment on a Saturday, a couple of hours after another two potential tenants toured the place.

A Facebook user who was also allegedly conned said she was meant to move into the place in the next couple of weeks but it all turned out to be a “nightmare”.

When contacted, a spokeswoman said the police were investigating the reports, however, at this stage, no further details could be given.