Rental Scams - What to Look For

For a while now, we have been doing our best to educate renters, property owners, and all other web-oriented audiences of online rental scams. Although it is a growing dilemma, there are a few simple precautions that can help avoid the problem altogether.

The scam begins with an ad plagiarized from a rental site and edited to make the rental rates substantially lower than normal. This attracts consumers based on price alone. Next, the interested party sends in an inquiry (or an application) to the “property owner”.

Confirmation letting the renter know they are “chosen” is sent through an email. The email itself gives very little contact information and rather than pressing for a tour of the home or for any sort of non-web communication, it asks the renter to fill out a form with their information and send in a deposit check. It then promises to send keys in return.Red Flags to look out for:

• Avoiding phone conversations or in-person meetings is suspicious and may mean they are hiding something.
• The scammer is likely to be from another country, usually Nigeria or the UK. Therefore, if there are misspelled words and incorrect grammar in the email it may be a scam.
• Asking for a check or payment through the mail without ever having met or spoken to the renter is completely against industry standard and a clear sign of a scam.

A second type of rental scam is also circulating the web. In this case, the scammer is the interested party. He or she finds your property listing online and sends in an inquiry. Again, they avoid any form of verbal or in-person contact by giving an excuse. They can be “travelling on business” or “out of touch on vacation”.

Next they send in a deposit check that is 1-2 thousand dollars over the required amount. This is where the true fraud occurs. The check is more than likely a fake. This type of scammer has caught onto the timing discrepancies that occur from the moment a bank receives the check to the moment it is recognized as a fake. Their hopes are that the property owner will feel secure about the deposited check and return the 1-2 thousand dollars before the fraud is detected.

The red flags here are similar to the first type of scam. If the misspellings and suspicious excuses don’t raise a red flag, then being cautious about the deposit is the last precaution you can take. Just be sure that their check has gone through before sending anything back.

For more details on scams and to read stories of people who have been scammed please visit www.rentalscams.org