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  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 7, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: real estate, , ,   

    Zillow not immune to rental scams 

    Zillow not immune to rental scams

    By Greg Collier

    When we talk about rental scams, victims typically find fraudulent listings on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. These are where rental scammers frequently post rental listings that they’ve stolen from legitimate realtor listings. The scammers then claim to be the landlords of the properties while falsely collecting things like application fees, security deposits, and first month’s rent. Since neither of those platforms are regularly monitored for rental scams, it’s easy for rental scammers to find victims.

    One platform we don’t often talk about when it comes to rental scams is Zillow. As a matter of fact, we often recommend using sites like Zillow as a guideline to see whether a rental listing is fraudulent or not. While Zillow is more reliable than Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, it seems their listings shouldn’t necessarily be taken as gospel.

    A woman from New York recently moved her family to North Carolina to find somewhere more affordable to live. She had found a listing on Zillow that was perfect. She contacted the person who Zillow said was the property owner. The man she communicated with was even able to get her into the home by providing the lock box code. However, the supposed property owner kept pressuring the woman by saying there were a lot of other interested renters and if she wanted to rent the property, she needed to act now. The woman transferred a $2000 deposit to the man. She went to the home expecting the man to show up with the keys, but instead a realtor showed up with a client. It was then she found out she had been scammed.

    When asked for comment, a Zillow representative stated that they go to great lengths to monitor for scams and provide scam prevention tips for users.

    If you’re looking to rent a house or apartment anytime soon, Zillow is a good tool to use, but should not be the only one you use. The best way to find out who actually owns a property is by check with the county’s tax office. Even if a potential landlord gives you the code to a property’s lockbox, that doesn’t necessarily make them the landlord. Scammers have been posing as customers of realtors in order to get the lockbox code. Lastly, if a landlord asks for the deposit through apps like Zelle and Venmo, or wire transfer, there’s a good chance they’re a scammer.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on May 23, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , real estate, , resort town,   

    Rental scams in resort towns 

    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.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on May 12, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , real estate, ,   

    Scam Round Up: Homeless victim loses savings in scam and more 

    By Greg Collier

    In this week’s round up, we have an update on a recent scam, a reminder of a grim scam, and a heartbreaking story on how heartless scammers are.

    ***

    You may remember a story from our last Scam Round Up where teachers in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area were being targeted in a jury duty scam. More recently, this scam moved westward and is now targeting teachers from the Cleveland, Ohio area, with at least one teacher falling victim to the scam.

    This is where scammers pose as local police and tell their victims they missed jury duty and a warrant is about to be issued for their arrest. However, a payment over the phone will supposedly resolve the matter.

    Much like in the Pittsburgh scam, scammers are calling schools in the Cleveland area asking for specific teachers and threatening them with arrest. One teacher is said to have lost $2000 to these scammers.

    Again, when it comes to jury duty, all communication is done through postal mail and not over the phone.

    ***

    In Upstate New York, police there are warning residents about a scam affecting the families of the recently deceased. Scammers are calling these families posing as an actuarial company claiming there’s been a data breach of the deceased’s information. The families are then asked for personal identifying information of the deceased.

    In this instance, scammers are likely trying to commit identity theft. They want to do things like open credit cards or take out loans in the deceased’s name before the credit companies update their record.

    If you were ever to receive a phone call like this, the best thing to do is to ask for them to send a request in writing. While not a guarantee, this does go a long way on discouraging these kinds of scammers.

    ***

    If that story wasn’t disturbing enough, a homeless woman from Florida was recently taken for over $1000 in a rental scam. After saving up enough money for her and her newborn baby to rent a home, she responded to an online real estate ad. She was texted by the supposed landlord, who asked her to pay a $75 application fee over Zelle. She was told she couldn’t see the property for a few days since it was currently occupied. Then she was asked by the supposed landlord to send $1049 for the first month’s rent. Fearing she might not get the home, she sent the money.

    Anytime a prospective landlord can’t show the property for whatever reason, there’s a good chance they’re not really the landlord.

    ***

    We hope that our readers never have to deal with scammers like this. But if you do, we hope we’ve prepared you enough to detect them.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on May 10, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , real estate, ,   

    Homebuyer loses $155K in email scam 

    Homebuyer loses $155K in email scam

    By Greg Collier

    A woman in the state of Georgia was getting ready to close on a new home when she received an email from her lawyer. She was given instructions to wire transfer the $155,000 for the closing costs. However, the money did not go to the attorney. Instead, it went to the bank account of a local scammer who was recently arrested on felony theft charges.

    So, how was the scammer able to fool the victim? This scam is known as the business email compromise scam, or BEC for short. In this scam, the scammers hijack compromised email accounts of real estate attorneys, title companies, or banks. This way, the scammers can monitor the emails for people who are getting ready to close on their homes. Then, the scammers either use the hijacked email address or a spoofed address to give fraudulent instructions to the homebuyer to wire the money to the scammers. Meanwhile, the victims think they just closed on a new home.

    According to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, this scam is becoming more common. This scam is so profitable, the scammers only need one victim to fall for the scam to make a ton of money.

    While you may not be in the market for a home right now, you may be in the future. So, it’s best to have this knowledge now instead of finding out before it’s too late. When the time comes to buy a home, the best way to protect yourself is to verify everything by phone. If you get an email from someone involved in the process asking you to make a substantial payment, call them to verify the request. It might be even better to visit the sender in person to verify any requests. No one wants to go through the stressful process of buying a new home only to have their dreams of a new home dashed by losing money to a scammer.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on April 12, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , real estate, ,   

    Closing costs stolen in real estate scam 

    Closing costs stolen in real estate scam

    By Greg Collier

    This scam doesn’t sound like it should be possible. It seems more like something you would see as a plot point in a movie. That doesn’t change the fact this scam happens rather regularly. While it is a type of phishing scam, this scam doesn’t even have a name for it, as far as we know. We’ve been calling it the closing cost scam, since it targets home buyers who are getting ready to close on their new homes. If it wasn’t for the fact that victims have lost upwards of $100,000, this scam could be considered genius. How it happened recently is especially uncanny.

    A man from Louisville, Kentucky, was getting ready to close on his new home, when he received an email that appeared to come from his closing attorney. The email instructed the man to wire $70,000 in order to prevent any delay with the closing procedure. After wiring the money, the man called his realtor, who informed him that the closing attorney did not send the email. The man tried to get the bank to stop the transfer of funds, but it had already happened, meaning the $70,000 was gone.

    Scammers were able to fool the victim because the email looked almost identical to the ones he had been receiving from his attorney, including the logo and signature. However, there was one minor detail the victim overlooked. The law office had the word Louisville in their name and in their email address. The scammers spelled Louisville in their email address with only one L, spelling it Louisvile.

    Somehow, scammers are getting into the email systems of realtors, lenders, and attorneys, and are monitoring the activity until someone goes to close before setting their trap. The scammers have also been known to stalk social media profiles of people who share with their friends that they’re getting ready to buy a house.

    If you’re getting ready to close on a home, be suspicious of any communication asking you to send money. If you receive an email like the one in the story above, call the sender to verify whether the request is legitimate or not. It would be even better to visit the sender in person to verify any requests. No one wants to go through the process of buying a new home only to have the deal fall through at the very last minute due to a scammer.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on February 16, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , real estate, ,   

    Face-to-face meeting still leads to rental scam 

    By Greg Collier

    Since the advent of online marketplaces, the rental scam has been a thorn in the side for tenants searching for new homes. For those who may not be aware, the rental scam is essentially when a scammer rents out a property they don’t own to an unwitting victim. The scammer takes the victim’s money while leaving the victim thinking they just rented a new home. Meanwhile, the scammer makes off with the victim’s money, while the victim could potentially be left without a home. These fake rental properties are often copied from legitimate real estate listings but listed at below-market rents to lure in victims. One of the warnings we typically give our readers is to be suspicious if a potential landlord gives excuses about meeting in person. But what can you do if a scammer agrees to meet you?

    That’s exactly what happened to a woman in Kansas City. She found a rental property listed on Facebook Marketplace that seemed perfect for her. She messaged the landlord about the property before talking to the landlord on the phone. The two finally met in person before the victim paid the landlord $1000 as a deposit and first month’s rent. However, the day before the victim was supposed to move into her new home, the landlord started giving excuses to the victim about meeting up to give the victim the keys. The victim went to the new home to wait for the landlord, but they never appeared. The victim had paid the landlord through the Venmo app, which basically meant the money was gone and couldn’t be recovered.

    Of course, when you first speak to a prospective landlord, you’re not going to know if they’re a scammer right off the bat. If they ask for payment in non-traditional means like a payment app or money transfer, that could be a good indicator that they’re trying to scam you. But before you even get to that stage, any potential renter should research the property first. Something as simple as a web search of the property’s address could reveal a scam in the making. If the address turns up for sale or has a higher rent, the odds are that the listing you found is part of a scam.

     

  • Geebo 9:02 am on December 29, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: campsite, , , , real estate, , , , ,   

    You can be scammed at any vacation lodging 

    You can be scammed at any vacation lodging

    By Greg Collier

    Currently, we’re still in the middle of the Christmas vacation season. We hope our readers’ vacation plans went off without a hitch. Hopefully, you didn’t have to experience the massive flight cancellations that took place over the holiday weekend. We also hope your vacation lodging was also to your liking.

    The reason we brought up lodging specifically it that there have been a coupe of stories in the news about people being scammed out of their lodging choices. For example, vacationers to Marco Island, Florida, showed up to what they thought were vacation homes that they rented, only to find out they were rented to someone else. It seems that the victim in these cases paid money to scammers who listed the vacation rentals online but didn’t actually own the properties they claimed to rent. This is just a variation of the rental scam where people think they’re renting a home they found on craigslist when the home is either actually for sale or being rented by a real estate agency instead of some guy from craigslist.

    So instead of getting a rental home, you decide to go camping. There’s no way you can be scammed camping, right? It turns out you can, The state of Indiana is warning campers about third-parties who are claiming to rent out campsites at state parks and forests. The scammers collect the money, but when the campers get to the site they thought they paid for, the site has actually been rented to someone else. In the Hoosier State, campers can only reserve campsites in the state parks through the state itself. Check to see if the state you’re going camping in has the same rules.

    Hotels and short-term rental platforms like Airbnb have their own set of scams to worry about. You can read more about those here and here.

    If you chose to stay home for the holidays this year, you may have made the safest choice of all.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on December 14, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: real estate, , ,   

    Scammers are selling tiny homes 

    By Greg Collier

    For the past few years, there’s been a trend on social media of people building or buying tiny homes. Most of the people who do so cite financial reasons for why they became enamored with tiny home living. While tiny home living isn’t for everyone, it can’t be denied that rising housing costs have created this relatively new market. But just because you may be thinking about taking the leap into a tiny home lifestyle, that doesn’t mean you should take the decision lightly.

    In South Carolina, The Manufactured Housing Institute of South Carolina is warning residents of the Palmetto State about scammers who are claiming to sell tiny homes. According to the MHISC, scammers are trying to pass off modified storage sheds as tiny homes. The scammers are said to be selling these structures from the roadside. These structures are said to have the barest of amenities added to them and are still considered illegal structures by the state if they were to be used as a home. They are said to lack proper ventilation and other safety standards required in most homes.

    In many ways, moving into a tiny home is more work than buying a ‘standard’ size home. If you’re thinking about taking the plunge into a tiny home, there is a ton of research that needs to be done before you even start building. We think it’s pretty obvious to say that you shouldn’t buy a home from a side of the road vendor with a spray-painted and misspelled sign. Unless you stop at a vegetable stand, there’s not a lot you should be buying off the side of the road. Most importantly, you need to check your state and local regulations regarding tiny homes. Some jurisdictions have banned them outright. You also have to worry about financing, as most traditional housing lenders won’t give loans for tiny homes. Then you have to worry about your new home being up to code as well.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 21, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , real estate, ,   

    Single mother pressured into rental scam 

    Single mother pressured into rental scam

    By Greg Collier

    Sometimes life throws challenges in our way that we’re not ready for. One minor bump in the road can have such a ripple effect that we find ourselves hoping for a miracle, so we can escape a desperate situation. For example, a single mother of three from Virginia need to find a new home immediately for her and her family after recovering from a number of illnesses. However, instead of finding a miracle, she found a scammer waiting to rob her of the little money she had saved for a deposit on a new home.

    She had found an affordable rental on Facebook Marketplace where her kids wouldn’t have to change schools. After filling out an ‘application’ to rent the property, the landlord said that there was another person who was getting ready to rent the property. If she still wanted to rent the property, she would need to pay the landlord right away through gift cards, since she couldn’t get away from her job. Unfortunately, she did end up sending $900 in gift cards to the supposed landlord for a property that wasn’t even being rented.

    As with most rental scams, online listings are copied from ads where homes are for sale instead of being available for rent. Scammers will copy ads off of Zillow and repost them on free platforms like Facebook Marketplace. The fake ads will almost always have the same word for word description used in the Zillow ad. Then the properties are listed for below-market value rent to lure victims into the scam.

    While everyone’s situation is different, no matter how desperate you may be, a rental property should be researched first before handing over any money. A quick web search of the address will usually bring up the original listing that the fake ones are copied from. And as with any scam, gift cards are a red flag in almost every situation. No real landlord or rental agency will ever ask for gift cards as a form of payment.

    In stressful situations like this, are judgement is often clouded. If you can, always try to take a step back and ask yourself if this situation seems off or too good to be true.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on August 17, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , landlords, real estate, ,   

    The rental scam from the landlord’s perspective can teach us a lot 

    By Greg Collier

    Recently, landlords have gotten a bad rap due to the eviction crisis brought about by the pandemic. However, many of them are just hardworking people using a property investment to make their living. When it comes to rental scams, we don’t often think of the legitimate landlord as being a victim of the scam. While they may not be losing money like the typical rental scam victim, they are spending precious time and resources to combat the scammers.

    In a typical rental scam, scammers will copy a legitimate listing of a home that’s for rent or for sale. The scammers will then post the property for rent on unmoderated platforms like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Usually, the property will be listed at below-market value rent to try to entice a victim. Once the victim is hooked, the scammers will ask for money in the form of a deposit or first and last month’s rent. Some victims have even tried to move into the property, only to find that someone else is legally living there.

    A landlord from Vermont was recently interviewed by her local media, and she said that she continues to see her properties listed on craigslist by scammers. She also said that scammers are listing her properties on craigslist that aren’t even up for rent. This has led to people knocking on the doors of rented homes asking if they can see the property. The landlord also said that within a 48-hour period, her team will flag up to 15 fraudulent listings on craigslist. It doesn’t help that scammers are also flagging legitimate listings on craigslist as scam ads.

    So, as we always recommend, do your research in a property before committing any money to the process. A web search of the address can reveal a lot such as the legitimate listing if it is, in fact, for rent. Such a web search can also tell you what the typical rent is for that kind of property in the area. However, the best way to prevent falling into a rental scam is to check with the county’s tax assessor’s office or website to find who truly owns the property.

     

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