Rental Scams

Rental scams take advantage of renters looking to find a new rental property and prey on the victims need for housing and urgency to take advantage of a good deal. Rental scammers might be looking to steal funds meant for a deposit, holding fee, or first months rent, or they might simply be looking to steal personal information from their victims. Landlords and property managers should be aware of the types of rental scams affecting their potential renters and learn how to spot and spot rental scams.

Rental scams are on the rise—and they’re more convincing than ever. In this video, Kaycee Miller from Rentec Direct breaks down how these scams work, real examples of people nearly falling victim to a rental scam, and the red flags every renter and landlord should recognize.

Whether you’re listing a property or searching for a new place to live, this video can help you quickly identify fraudulent listings. Learn how fake listings steal photos, collect deposits, and trick hopeful tenants—and what you can do to stop it.

In this video you will learn: 

  • How rental scams are set up
  • Real-life examples of scam tactics
  • Warning signs renters should never ignore
  • What landlords can do to protect their listings and tenants
  • Where to report suspected scams

Rental Scams Exposed: How to Spot a Fake Listing Before It’s Too Late – Watch the VIdeo

Rental Scams Exposed: How to Spot a Fake Listing Before It’s Too Late – Video Transcript

I want to share something that’s super frustrating being in the rental industry and the real estate industry and that’s rental scams. 

Rental scams happen when people post fraudulent listings in order to collect a victim’s identity or personal information and use that information for their own personal gain. The person who falls victim to these rental scams is at a loss for funds and their personal information is potentially at risk. 

My name is Kaycee Miller. I work for Rentec Direct property management software. I’ve also been a landlord and a property investor, and I’ve worked in the industry for over a decade sharing information about landlords, property management and tips for being a renter. 

And today, I want to talk about rental scams.

Types of Rental Scams

Now, as a property manager or a landlord or a real estate investor, I think it’s important to understand what kind of scams are out there and how vulnerable potential tenants are to falling victim to these scams.

When it comes to housing, people can get really excited about finding a new place to live, and ultimately finding a good deal on a property. Finding a property that is affordable, or even seems to be below market rent, can make someone super excited to jump in an opportunity.

So rental scams most often happen when a person uses a rental listing site – think like Zillow, Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, or Apartments.com – and posts a fraudulent rental listing in order to collect a deposit from someone with no intention of renting the property. The scam might also collect someone’s personal information to then use for future scams or to steal more money or steal someone’s identity. 

It is so unfortunate that rental applicants can fall victim to these scams because they’re so excited about seeing a good deal.

How Rental Scams Happen

I personally know a couple of people who have come really close to falling victim to these scams because they’re searching for an apartment, maybe their budget is limited or they just want to find a good deal and they see a rental listing that, that is maybe $200 below market rent. Maybe it’s $400 below market rent, and you think, “oh my gosh, this is going to be a great property. I need to jump at this deal.”

Let’s break down how these scams happen and why it makes sense that someone could fall victim to a scam. 

Typically a person who is going to perform the scam sees a legitimate rental listing on a rental listing site and they steal the photos, they steal the property information for that listing and create a new fraudulent listing with the same details, but they’ll make the rental price cheaper.

For example, in my town, I’ve seen it for a legitimate listing being $1,400 for a two-bedroom property, and then someone can steal that information and list it for $800. 

Then, someone looking for a two-bedroom property is like, “oh my gosh, $800 I’m going to apply and try to contact this person.”

How the Scam Unfolds

The victim will respond to the $800 rental listing and say, “Hey, can you give me more details about it?” 

And the person responding sounds legitimate. They sound like they are truly a landlord with information and they want to give the victim an opportunity to rent the property. 

So they’ll say, “yeah, you know, it’s $800 deposit is only $500” —which again, that should be a red flag because security deposits are usually at least equal to one month’s rent. They’re never going to be less than one month’s rent. Sometimes they’re even two times one month’s rent.

A deposit that is also a lot less can, should ring a little alarm bell for some of these rental applicants. 

But again, it’s that need, that urgency of like, “oh my gosh, I need to take advantage of this deal.”

Rental Scams Red Flags:

  • Rent is below market average
  • Security deposit seems too good to be true
  • Sudden unavailability to meet in person
  • Weird background check process

And so the scammer will say, “you know, the deposit is $500, we’ll run a background check. If you get approved, then you can use that background check fee to go towards your first month’s rent.”

They just make the deal and application process really exciting and really interesting. They’ll even say, “Hey, do you want to come by and see the property later today?”

And what can happen is that that victim, that rental applicant, you know, has plans to go see this property and they’re on their way to, to the appointment, say it’s at 2:00 PM or something, they’re on the way.

And then they get a message from the landlord who says, “oh shoot, something just came up. Why don’t you go ahead and drive by that property and let me know what you think.”

The victim rental applicant can drive by that property and respond to the landlord and say, “yeah, it looks great. I’m super excited about this opportunity.”

And the landlord says, “well, I have a lot of interest right now. So why don’t you go ahead and send a holding deposit like $200 or something and, and then to hold it because we have a lot of interest right now and send me that $200 and then you can fill out a rental application. We can take the next steps towards renting this property.”

Rental Scammers Are Quick and Repetitive

And so the rental applicant is so excited about having this deal that then they send the $200 and that’s it. 

They never hear from the landlord again. Their money is gone, and they find out the whole situation was fake. 

If the payment was made via a money order, a Zelle payment, or a wire transfer, it can be nearly impossible to recoup these funds. Scammers can set up fake accounts to collect this money and maybe it’s only $200, but they can do that same scam 10 times in a day before their rental listing gets flagged and then they can just create another one.

Why Renters are at Risk for Rental Scams

I want to share this information about rental scams, so landlords and property managers understand the vulnerabilities that their potential tenants have when searching for a rental property. 

They can be so excited or desperate to get a good deal, or the need to move might be really high because they want to get out of their current housing situation, that they are more willing to ignore red flags and just move forward.

Rental Listings are Too Good to be True – Real Life Example

I talked to someone who was almost a victim of a scam like this and they were so excited about the price that was so much more affordable than some of the other market rent properties that were listed on these sites. 

They even expressed their hesitation that the price seemed too good to be true, but shared they assumed it must be legit because the renter was texting the fake landlord and the fake landlord agreed to meet at the property in person. 

I expressed my concern over the background check process. One of the other things that happened in this particular situation is that the landlord said, “we’ll run a background check. And so to do the background check, just go to this website and take a screenshot of your credit score and send it to me.”

The credit check website was not a legitimate site that I had ever heard of. DING DING DING – Red Flag Alaram!  I’ve been in this industry for a long time, and it’s rare I haven’t heard of a background check service. 

I can’t imagine a single landlord or property manager who would legitimately collect a screenshot of a credit score as a tenant screening process as that would be too easy to fake.

Collecting Rental Application Data 

Something else a scammer might do is collect a fake rental application with all of your personal information.

Think about the information requested on a rental application – your birthday, your social security number on there, your address, previous addresses – all of that personal information going to a scammer. They can use that information to set up other fraudulent accounts to continue their scam scheme and prey on other victims. 

What to do When You Spot a Rental Scam

What can you do if you see a scam or maybe one of your rental listings is being used as a fraudulent listing? 

Always report a rental listing that you see that could be fraudulent. If you know anyone who’s been a victim of a rental scam, ask them to talk to their local authorities. Ask them to talk to the FBI because these are crimes that have the potential to impact lots and lots of people.

How Housing Providers Can Help

As housing providers and working in this industry, I think the best thing that we can do is to share this information and let people know what to look for in terms of red flags, prices that are too good to be true sketchy, sketchy background check situations or a rental application process and then being given the runaround of meeting in person.

And the urgency, giving you that idea of there’s lots of people in line, so just send me some money right now and then we’ll take care of the other stuff later. 

Those are some of the kinds of red flags that rental applicants should be aware of to make good judgment on providing their information to a legitimate housing provider.

And we as housing providers should be aware of what’s happening to our clients, to our potential tenants so we understand the vulnerabilities that they face and what we can do in order to protect them.

Final Thoughts

My name is Kaycee Miller. I work for Rentec Direct property management software system security, taking care of our industry and really promoting a positive landlord. Tenant relationships are something that I’m very passionate about. You can find tips like this and lots more industry news on the Rentec Direct blog. Always come and visit me there and make sure to follow and like, and subscribe to our channel.