Are you in the market for a new place to live and dealing with a realtor seems to be out of the question? Where do you turn? A lot of people think that Craigslist, Facebook etc., holds many great opportunities for low-cost rental properties. Before you begin your search or sign on the dotted line, be aware that there are many unscrupulous people, posing as rental agents, just to get your personal and financial information. The number of fake rental scams and other online classifieds continues to grow, with new aliases appearing daily. While the names may change, the methods are always the same. Don’t believe these ads appear only on social media. They could show up anywhere!
• The email addresses they use usually are from yahoo, ymail, rocketmail, fastermail, live, hotmail and gmail, and they also post ads under anonymous craigslist addresses. They frequently change their aliases.
• The deal sounds too good to be true. Scammers will often list a rental for a very low price to lure in victims. Find out how comparable listings are priced, and if the rental comes in suspiciously low, walk away.
• They will take photos from a current listing, create a new listing, and pass it off as their own.
• If they offer to meet you at the home and the owner is not able to show you the interior of the home or the owner doesn’t have keys and advises you to change the locks that is a red flag.
• They use fake names, often stolen from Facebook profiles or networking sites. Often, they assume the identities of previous victims.
• The contact number provided to the renter is usually a burner/throw away phone and is discarded the minute the deal is done.
• Never under any circumstances, wire money at the request of any prospective “landlord” via Western Union, Money Gram or any other wire service. Even if they tell you to wire the funds to a friend or relative’s name “to be safe”, it’s a trap!
• Never be in a rush. You can always check with your local City Offices to see who they list as the owner of the property and see if there is a certificate of occupancy for the home issued by the city.
