PENFIELD, N.Y. – A News10NBC investigation helped save a young man from losing thousands of dollars in a house rental scam.

When James Commeth was looking at a Facebook Marketplace ad to rent a house in Penfield, he thought about a story he had just watched on News10NBC about house rental scams.

“You know the price was too good to be true,” James Commeth said. “The seller — there wasn’t a whole lot of information.”

That’s when Commeth started to see the red flags and began digging into the address.

“And sure enough, I saw it was listed on Zillow, that same house, and it was actually a pending sale,” he said.

The house is on Shoecraft Road, and the real estate agent confirmed the ad is a fraud. News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean messaged the person who posted the ad, and they replied saying the house is available. They asked for an email to send the rental agreement, which had a warning at the bottom saying “Be aware of scams.”

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “How do you stop this from happening?”

Mike O’Connor, President, Greater Rochester Association of Realtors: “We can’t. The simple answer is we can’t.”

Mike O’Connor says the problem has started to drop because agents have stopped posting listings on Craigslist, but the frauds are on all social media. He also says agents are starting to remove photos after a sale closes.

Commeth says it’s hard enough to find a place you can afford and now you have to contend with frauds.

Berkeley Brean: “Criminal comes to mind.”

James Commeth: “Yeah, for sure. Definitely criminal. I’d agree with that.”

Commeth says he flagged the ad to Facebook. He showed News10NBC their reply, which said they reviewed the post but found it does not violate their community standards so they did not remove it.

Berkeley Brean: “You dodged a bullet here.”

James Commeth: “I’m definitely glad I dodged that. I’m glad I read your story, for sure.”