Innocent People Are Being Victimized by These Fraudsters
This is an eye opener topic, which most people take for granted — rental scams. For sure, sometime in your life, you have either leased or rented an apartment or a home. In the past we use to find property rental ads in newspapers or yard signs. Now we find them mostly online.
Nowadays we use our phones to search Internet. We go to popular sites like Zillow, Craigslist, Facebook and other free rental sites. The possibility is we will see rental scams out there.
Today, we will talk about how to avoid rental scams? What are the warning signs that you are being scammed and how to report a rental scammer?
These scammers are victimizing innocent people and taking advantage of them. We need to be aware and be vigilant in all these things.
Everybody needs a place to stay, whether buying a house or leasing a house. We all need a roof at the end of the day, right? But nobody likes being a victim of a scam.
It is hard to trust anybody especially online. They pretend to help you, but in reality, they are vipers or snakes. Scammers use several tactics nowadays to get money from people and it’s sad when innocent people are victimized by these fraudsters. Hopefully these tips will help you avoid them and make informed decisions.
A story (by a realtor) goes like this:
“I had no idea that this is happening till I got a call from potential renters and the good thing is, they managed to find my contact number before the alleged scammer took their hard-earned money. For my rental listing, I have hired a professional photographer and have showcased it by putting it in MLS (multiple listing service). This is where we post our listing whether for lease or for sale. The website is a reputable site and it could be used when you are searching for homes for rent.
When we input or post our listing in the MLS website, it syndicates this to several sites online. Syndicate means it automatically feeds our listings to various online home search engines to provide added exposure to assist in generating potential buyers or renters for the property. Examples on where they syndicate are Realtor.com, homes.com, chron.com, trulia.com, zillow.com, etc. Since my listing is a rental, when I posted the listing in the website, it automatically syndicated it also in apartments.com website.
A potential renter called me and said if I have a listing at 123 ABC drive listed at $1000/month. I confirmed to the potential renter, that she is right that I have a listing located at 123 ABC drive but it is listed at $1500/month and not $1000/month as she has mentioned. (The actual address and figures are not disclosed here for privacy reasons). I have asked her where she found the listing. She said that she found it in apartments.com.
To cut the story short, I immediately went to the apartments.com website and found my listing, not one but two of them. One listing that syndicated from the website (which is my listing that I inputted) and another one that is a duplicate listing showing the lease price at $1000/month.
Not only that the scammer has an incorrect lease price, even the terms of the lease are incorrect.
They indicated PETS allowed and that all utilities are included. Take note that no pets are allowed and no utilities are included in my listing. Their goal is to really lure you to inquiring about the listing. Would you believe there is a contact name and number of the scammer.
I reported the scammer and called the apartments.com website to delete the listing immediately. They found out that the listing came from another site that syndicated to them. In other words, they have no control over what comes into their website. They said they rely on realtors like us and the public to be vigilant and report any scams and/or fraudulent activity.
This is not the first time I have received a call. A second potential renter called me again and this time it is almost a close call for them in providing their hard-earned money.
He called me to confirm if I am the agent for the listing at 123 ABC drive property. I said YES and this time he said that it is listed for $1000/month.
I said NO. Then he said, “my friend I found your listing and we are talking to a person named John Doe and he said that in order to process the application, we need to pay the application fee upfront. The owner prefers not to have a realtor in order to avoid paying commission and that he (we will call him John Doe) is the owner of the property.” The fraudster even provided them an email address. Can you believe that?
The potential renter informed me that since John Doe is not available to show the home to them, he drove to the actual property. There he found my lockbox and my sign. And this is how he was able to contact me…”
Here is what to do if a rental scam comes your way:
Tip #1:
Investigate further. Google the property address and do your due diligence. It is advisable to go to a local real estate website like HAR.com to make sure that the property you are seeing online is legitimate or accurate. Websites like Zillow or Trulia should not be your first choice because the listings there are not up to date, also not all of the listings in Zillow or Trulia come from reputable websites.
Some of them are either for sale by owner or for lease by owner and also scammers. It is easy to create an account here because it is free. Sometimes you see listings here that is either already under contract or SOLD, but still shows active in Zillow or Trulia.
Tip #2:
Make sure to ask the fraudster if s/he can open the property for you. For sure they will say NO. If not, go to the actual property to see if it is legitimate. If you are out of town or out of state, ask a friend to help you or seek the help of a realtor or real estate agent by checking reviews and testimonials. For sure they will be able to assist in this regard.
Tip #3:
If they are asking for money upfront or if they ask for money without you viewing the property, then that is a potential red flag.
Nowadays, listing agents receive more than 50 calls requesting for showing and in order to be efficient, agents filter those renters by having them answer a questionnaire or review a tenant selection criterion to make sure they meet the minimum requirements. It is a waste of time showing to potential renters if they don’t even meet income or credit score requirements.
Tip #4:
Compare prices. Check the typical market lease price for a particular city. If the average lease price is $1500/month and the house that you like is $1000/month, then that is definitely a red flag.
Tip #5:
When you pay, make sure not to pay using cash, wire transfers or gift card. Usually, legitimate rentals ask for cashier’s check payable to a certain individual and or a brokerage company.
Tip #6:
Sign a written lease agreement. Not a verbal or oral agreement. Everything should be signed and documented. Before you sign, make sure to verify the landlord or the owner of the property. The way to do this is by checking the tax records or public documents.
Tip #7:
Check if the agreement has you sub-leasing the property. This is a potential red flag. Not many landlords are allowing sub-lease arrangements, so be wary if the scammer is asking you to sign a sub-lease agreement.
Tip #8:
Scammers may not do credit or background check or rush at everything. They rush you to sign a lease and pay application fee and security deposit.
Tip #9:
Avoid the scam of a middleman. You will see them in websites like Craigslist or online classifieds. They are not the real owner but another person placing an ad on behalf of the owner. There was a study conducted on “understanding Craigslist rental scams” stating that 29K scam listings were detected. It’s plenty.
Tip #10:
If all utilities are included as part of the lease, this may be another sign that it might be a scam. Yes, there are apartments or rentals with utilities included… but be cautious this might be one sign that you can be mindful of.
How to report a rental scammer in case you got scammed?
Below are a few simple steps: Call the police and give them the details. Call the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) toll-free hotline 1–877-FTC-HELP (1–877–382–4357). Fill in their FTC online complaint form. You can also file a complaint on the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Also contact your attorney or legal advisor for assistance. Leave a negative review on the website where you saw the ad post to make sure that other people will not fall victims.
Don’t forget to report scam calls to Reverd.com — A global Anti-Scam System supported by crowd reporting.
