A REDDITOR found a dream apartment that was within their budget, but ended up getting the rug pulled out from under them.
The user shared their experience on the Renters subreddit with the title, “I think I just experienced a rental scam.”
A Reddit user shared their experience after nearly falling for a rental scam[/caption]
User DelMakes explained that their husband scheduled them to look at a four-bedroom apartment that seemed “too good to be true,” as it was only $2,000 a month.
The first red flag was that the women who showed them the apartment gave the wrong address.
“She then says that her husband can’t meet me there, but she will give me the code to be let into the house and I can FaceTime my husband while I tour it,” DelMakes wrote.
DelMakes received the code and toured the place, which they said left them “drooling” at how nice it was.
The woman showing the apartment said utilities were included in the fee, and DelMakes eventually asks for an application.
The woman urged DelMakes to apply quickly, which made the user and their husband have reservations.
“Then she calls my husband to have him Zelle her the $150 application payment. The email she gives him is a personal gmail address that isn’t anything professional – just “weirdphrase at gmail” and also the name of her husband,” DelMakes wrote.
“That raises my grifter alarm but I am curious so I keep going. My husband can’t Zelle her the payment so he asks me to do it.”
They checked the address on Zillow and found that it was listed on the rental market the other day for $3,300 — not the price that the women said it was.
“She calls me and insists on being on the phone with me while I Zelle her the $150. I ask her why this is different than any other Zelle payment,” wrote DelMakes.
Signs of a rental scam
Here are some of the most common signs of a possible rental scam:
- Few to no photographs in ads or photos have another company’s watermark
- Listing and/or rental application looks unprofessional or has typos
- Abnormally high security deposits and/or no background checks required
- “Pushy” sales methods, such as contacting you repeatedly and creating a sense of urgency
- Payment is requested via wire transfer, gift cards, cash, cash apps, or services like Zelle, Venmo, PayPal, or Apple/Google Pay
- The deal is “too good to be true.”
Source: Invitation Homes
“I think she said that she needed to make sure I put a note with my husband’s name in the Zelle payment so ‘her lawyer knows who it’s from’ (since my husband was the primary applicant).”
The woman accepted multiple forms of payment, including Zelle and Apple Pay, which left the couple unsure if the viewing was legitimate.
“Clearly this was not legitimate, but what is going on here? How does this work?” DelMakes asked.
“If they’re just scamming people for application fees, how did they get the access code to the house?”
DelMakes added an update to the post, revealing that the viewing wasn’t legitimate after checking out the leasing company’s page on fraud.
The post received more than 200 upvotes and 56 comments.
“My guess is that she toured the house, which is how she had the code. I would not send her any money,” wrote one user.
Another user recommended that DelMakes report the scam to their local police.
“People do this when they’re getting evicted or about to move,” wrote a third user.
“They pose as the landlords and still have access to the property and scam people into giving application money, first, last, and security deposits before just ghosting them when it’s time for move in.”
Zillow warns users to look for any potential red flags when looking for an apartment such as pressure to send personal information or money before seeing a property or if the listing seems too good to be true.
“If you think you’ve run across a rental scam, report it to local law enforcement, your state attorney general, and the FTC,” read Zillow’s website.
