T
he rental market is tough enough without having to deal with fake
ads and crooks looking to steal your money. But it happens all the
time. And it's alarmingly easy for these rental scams to rope in even
the smartest among us.
So how do you keep it from happening to you?
To beat a scammer, you need to think like a scammer. Here are a few
trademark secrets behind those rental swindles—and how you can beat
them at their own game.
1. They 'hijack' real ads (and
fake emails)
It's so easy for fraudsters to trick you
because they're using real ads. I know,
this happens to me at least 3-4 times a
summer.
They don't want to work that hard, and they
don't have to. They're mostly stealing real
rental ads, copying the text and the images,
and making some minor tweaks—usually
changing the rent amount. They'll look for
a home that would likely rent in range of
$2,800-$3,400 and relist it with a discount
of $500 -$1,000.
Along similar lines these scammers often
go to property tax records and look up the
owners name and then make an email with
that name. Very sneaky.
