Greg's Corner

Rental scams in resort towns

By Greg Collier

Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is an all-year resort town. In the winter, they offer the usual activities of skiing and snowboarding. During the summer months they have fishing, rafting, tubing, and kayaking thanks to the Yampa River. However, even resort towns have year-round residents, and finding a long-term place to live can become quite the challenge. It also presents quite the opportunity for rental scams to find victims.

Recently, a man who was commuting to Steamboat Springs, wanted to live closer to his work. He found a two bedroom home that had a reasonable rent on Craigslist. He responded to the ad and was communicating with the supposed landlord through text. The landlord asked for first and last month’s rent, which amounted to $5500. The man was asked to make the payment through either Zelle or money order. The payment was made through money order. Right before the man was supposed to move into the property, all communication between him and the landlord stopped. The man went by the home to find it was already being occupied.

The actual owner of the home was actually offering the home for short-term rentals on VRBO. VRBO is a competitor to Airbnb. According to the owner, he knew that someone was copying his VRBO listing on Craigslist. He would constantly have the listing flagged, only to have it reemerge on Craigslist a few days later. After the victim lost his money, both he and the homeowner went to the police. The police discovered that the money order was routed to an overseas account, which means it’s unlikely the victim will recover his losses.

If someone is in the market for a new place to live and looking to rent, they should always do a web search on the property’s address. This should present them with a number of real estate websites, which should show them more information about the property. While not a guarantee of revealing a scammer, this does go a long way in helping find out the property’s true rent and availability.

Also, if a landlord asks for payment through payment apps like Zelle and Venmo, it could be a scam. These money transfer apps should only be used between friends and family.

Lastly, if a landlord only communicates through text without meeting in person, this could also be a red flag indicating a scam.

While the desire for shelter is one of the most basic human needs, always try to exercise caution when looking to rent a new home.