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How To Avoid Rental Scams | How To Report A Rental Scammer | Houston Texas - YouTube
Channel: Jennifer Yoingco, Houston Suburb Real Estate
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Today, we'll talk about an eye opener topic,
which most people take for granted.
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Rental scams?
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For sure, sometime in your life, you have
either leased or rented an apartment or a
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home.
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Before we use to find them in newspapers or
yard signs.
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Now we find them mostly ONLINE.
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We use our phones to search sometimes.
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We go to popular sites like Zillow, craigslist
and other free rental sites.
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Today, we will talk about how to avoid rental
scams?
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What are the warnings signs that you are being
scammed and how to report a rental scammer?
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Let's explore it right now.
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Hi Jennifer Yoingco, welcome to my channel.
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By the way, watch till the end of the video
as I will provide you a free gift.
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My moving guide checklist is now available
for download.
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I will give that to you for free.
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On to our topic.
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How to avoid rental scams and how to report
a rental scammer.
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I thought about sharing this topic to you
because one of my rental listings was used
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by a scammer.
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Good thing we were able to find out what the
scammer is doing before it caused potential
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harm financially.
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These scammers are victimizing innocent people
and taking advantage of them.
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We need to be aware and be vigilant in all
these things.
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This is the reason, I would like to share
this timely topic to you.
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I would not like for you to experience the
same thing.
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I know everybody needs a place to stay, whether
buying a house or leasing a house.
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We all need a roof at the end of the day,
right?
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But who would like to be in this situation.
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It is hard to trust anybody especially online.
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They pretend to help you, but in reality,
they are vipers or snakes.
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I am really upset on what is happening.
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Scammers use several tactics nowadays to get
money from people and it's sad when innocent
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people are victimized by these fraudsters.
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I hope these tips will help you avoid them
and make informed decisions.
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The story goes like this....take note, I have
no idea that this is happening till I got
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a call from potential renters. and the good
thing is, they managed to find my contact
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number before the alleged scammer took their
hard earned money.
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For my rental listing, I have hired a professional
photographer and have showcased it by putting
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it in MLS (or what we call multiple listing
service).
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I use HAR website.
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This is where we post our listing whether
for lease or for sale.
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The HAR website is a reputable site and I
suggest for you to use this site when you
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are searching for homes for rent particularly
here in the greater Houston area.
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When we input or post our listing in the HAR
MLS website, HAR syndicates this to several
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sites online.
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Syndicate means it automatically feeds our
listings to various online home search to
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provide added exposure to assist in generating
potential buyers /or renters for the property.
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Examples on where they syndicate are Realtor.com,
homes.com, chron.com, broker/agent websites,
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trulia.com, zillow.com, etc.
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Since my listing is a rental, when I posted
the listing in HAR website, it automatically
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syndicated this in apartments.com website.
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Honestly, I did not know at first that it
will go to this particular website.
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There are several websites that HAR syndicates
to.
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Nevertheless, it is an added website for which
you can find rentals.
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How did I know about this??
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Anyway, a potential renter called me and said
if I have a listing at 123 ABC drive listed
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at $1000/month.
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I confirmed to the potential renter, that
she is right that I have a listing located
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at 123 ABC drive but it is listed at $1500/month
and not $1000/month as she has mentioned.
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(Take note that the actual address and figures
are not disclosed here for privacy reasons).
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I have asked her where she found the listing.
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She said that she found it in apartments.com.
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To cut the story short, I immediately went
to the apartments.com website and found my
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listing, not one but two of them.
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One listing that syndicated from HAR.com website
(which is my listing that I inputted) and
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another one that is a duplicate listing showing
the lease price at $1000/month.
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Not only that the scammer has an incorrect
lease price, even the terms of the lease are
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incorrect.
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They indicated PETS allowed and that all utilities
are included.
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Take note that no pets are allowed and no
utilities are included in my listing.
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Their goal is to really lure you to inquiring
about the listing.
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Would you believe there is a contact name
and number of the scammer.
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What I did is reported the scammer and called
the apartments.com website to delete the listing
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immediately.
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They found out that the listing came from
another site that syndicated to them.
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In other words, they have no control what
comes in to their website.
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They said they rely on Realtors like us and
the public to be vigilant and report any scams
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and/or fraudulent activity.
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So tip #1 - investigate further.
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Make sure to google the property address and
do your due diligence.
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I suggest to go to a local real estate website
like HAR.com to make sure that the property
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you are seeing online is legitimate or accurate.
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I do not recommend going to Zillow or Trulia
websites directly because the listings here
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are not up to date.
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I know it's ironic that HAR syndicates to
these websites which means the listings are
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fresh, but not all of the listings in zillow
/or trulia come from HAR.com.
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Some of them are either for sale by owner
or for lease by owner, or investors that add
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listings and also scammers.
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It is easy to create an account here because
it is free.
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Sometimes you see listings here that is either
already under contract or SOLD in HAR, but
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still shows active in Zillow /or Trulia.
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This is the reason why I do not recommend
going to these websites directly.
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If you found a listing that is too good to
be true, then go with your gut feel, because
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for sure it is too good to be true.
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Would you believe?
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This is not the first time I have received
a call.
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A second potential renter called me again
and this time it is almost a close call for
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them in providing their hard earned money.
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He called me to confirm if I am the agent
for the listing at 123 ABC drive property.
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I said YES and this time he said that it is
listed for $1000/month.
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I said NO.
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Then he said, my friend found your listing
and we are talking to a person named John
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Doe and he said that in order to process the
application, we need to pay the application
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fee upfront.
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The owner prefer not to have a Realtor in
order to avoid paying commission and that
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he (we will call him John Doe) is the owner
of the property The fraudster even provided
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them an email address.
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The email address that the fraudster used
is "[email protected]".
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Would you believe that??
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Using blessing as if they are a nice person..again
pretending and very deceiving.
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The potential renter even informed me that
since John Doe is not available to show the
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home to them, what he did is he drove to the
actual property.
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There he found my lockbox and my sign.
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And this is how he was able to contact me.
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So second tip...make sure to ask the fraudster
if he /she can open the property for you.
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For sure they will say NO.
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If not, go to the actual property to see if
it is legitimate.
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If you are out of town or out of state, ask
a friend to help you or seek the help of a
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Realtor or Real estate agent by checking reviews
and testimonials.
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For sure they will be able to assist in this
regard.
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The third tip is if they are asking money
upfront orIf they ask money without you viewing
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the property, then that is a potential red
flag.
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If they screen you, but with NO fees of course,
then that is fine.
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Nowadays, listing agents receive more than
50 calls requesting for showing and in order
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to be efficient, agents filter those renters
by having them answer a questionnaire or review
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a tenant selection criteria to make sure they
meet the minimum requirements.
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It is a waste of time showing to potential
renters if they don't even meet income or
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credit score requirements.
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Fourth tip, compare prices.
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Usually you can check the typical market lease
price for a particular city.
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If the average lease price is $1500/month
and the house that you like is $1000/month,
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then that is definitely a red flag.
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Fifth tip - when you pay, make sure not to
pay using cash, wire transfers or gift card.
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Usually, legitimate rentals ask for cashier's
check payable to a certain individual and
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or a brokerage company.
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6th tip - once you found the property and
you think it is going very well, another thing
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to check is to make sure to sign a written
lease.
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No verbal or oral lease agreement here.
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Everything should be signed and documented.
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Wait, before you sign, make sure to verify
the landlord or the owner of the property.
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The way to do this is by checking the tax
records or public documents.
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7th tip - check if the agreement has you sub-leasing
the property.
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Not a lot of landlords are allowing this arrangement
so be wary if the scammer is asking you to
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sign a sub-lease agreement.
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This is a potential red flag.
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8th - scammers sometimes do not do credit
or background check and or rushes at everything.
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They Rush you to sign a lease and pay application
fee and security deposit.
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9th - avoid the scam of a middleman.
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What do I mean by this.
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You will see them in websites like craigslist
or online with classifieds.
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They are not the real owner but another person
placing an Ad on behalf of the owner.
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There was a study conducted "understanding
craigslist rental scams" which I will include
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in the description below.
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It says that 29K scam listings were detected.
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Would you believe that?
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So many...
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Last but not the least - if ALL utilities
are included as part of the lease, this may
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be another sign that it might be a scam.
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Do not get me wrong, there are apartment or
rentals with utilities included..again this
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is only one sign that you can be mindful of.
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Let's say you got scammed.
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How do you report a rental scammer?
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Below are a few simple steps:
Call the police and give them the details.
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Call the FTC or federal trade commission.
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There toll-free hotline is
1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).
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Fill in their FTC online complaint form
You can also file a complaint on the Internet
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Crime Complaint Center
Also contact your attorney or legal advisor
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who can assist.
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Leave a negative review on the website where
you saw the ad post to make sure that nobody
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else will be
a victim.
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