A few months ago I blogged about the rental scam that was cropping up in the South Florida, well it seems it back or perhaps it’s a variation of the old one.
The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) recently put out a consumer alert regarding rental scams. If you suspect a scam, have already been victimized, or know someone who has fallen victim to a scam, please report it to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center to help them determine the extent of the problem.
How the scam works.
First, the scammer will contact the listing agent for the property by either driving by and calling on the sign or sending the listing agent an e-mail.
The e-mail will ask for certain things about the property such as the price, move in costs, etc. Below are some tips when dissecting a rental scam email.
- Does the email start out with Sir/Madam?
- Are there misspellings in the email?
- Are there character mistakes in the email? i.e Hello,my nameis Susie.
- Is there excessive capitalization?
- Does the email reference God, UK, Cashiers Check, Doctor, Nigeria, Reverend, etc.
- Is the email from a free email provider. i.e gmail, yahoo, aol, hotmail.
- Does the email refer to another person or agent?
- Does the email reference wanting to move in site unseen?
If the email has a majority of these in common, chances are very good it is a scammer. If you are not sure, it’s best to not reply.
The money order/deposit scam
Scammers will try to make the victim feel as comfortable as possible. Here is one way they do it. Once the scammer has all the information about the property, they will then do the following:
- Advertises the rental(s) on a large free classifieds site and make the rental price extremely low.
- The victim finds the ad and wants to rent the property. Because it is priced so low, the victim thinks they are getting a good deal and must act right away so they don’t lose this great deal.
- The Victim and the scammer begin communicating via e-mail.
- The Scammer tells the victim he is out of the country on business.
- To ensure the victim has the funds, the scammer will ask the victim to wire a deposit ($2,000) to any of the victims friends. This is supposed to make the victim feel comfortable with the process because they are wiring the money (deposit) to their own friend.
- The scammer requests a copy of the receipt to make sure the funds have been transferred to the victim’s friend through MoneyGram.
- With the information on the receipt, the scammer picks up the money and the victim is out the money as well as the rental. Money orders alow the recipient to pick up the funds anywhere in the world.
How to avoid being victimized:
- Only deal with landlords or renters who are local;
- Be suspicious if you’re asked to only use a wire transfer service;
- Beware of e-mail correspondence from the “landlord” that’s written in poor or broken English;
- Research the average rental rates in that area and be suspicious if the rate is significantly lower;
- Don’t give out personal information, like social security, bank account, or credit card numbers.
If you suspect a scam, have already been victimized, or know someone who has fallen victim to a scam, please report it to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center to help them determine the extent of the problem.