Looking for your next apartment, condominium, or home rental can be a time-consuming process, and it may feel as though you’ll never find the right place at the right price. Scammers know this feeling and can use it to exploit consumers.
Better Business Bureau advises consumers to take their time and do their homework before signing a lease. Housing rental scams commonly lure consumers with beautiful pictures, great amenities, and low rent. They advertise a sense of urgency, pressuring would-be renters to put down a security deposit right away, even as the owner - that is, scammer - claims to be “out of town” and “unable” to show the property. In reality, the apartment is already rented or doesn’t exist, leaving the victim out hundreds of dollars and potentially without a home.
Common red flags in an apartment rental scam include requests to provide prepaid gift card information or wire funds through MoneyGram, Green Dot MoneyPak, or Western Union. Another could be typos, grammatical errors and improper wording or context during discussion or in the ad. When selling or buying items online, they might request for your bank account number, Social Security number, or a code sent to your cell phone via text message or phone call, which indicates a potential scam.
BBB recommends the following tips when searching for housing rentals. Carefully research the owner and the home: look for the property owner's name, phone number, and email address online. Ask to inspect the property and review the lease before making any decisions. Check local property records to determine if the person is the actual owner of the property. See the property in person, and if you can’t visit an apartment, condominium, or house yourself, ask someone you trust to go and confirm that it is what was advertised.
