COVINGTON, Ky. — Spring is peak rental season when millions of Americans look for new places to live. With rents high, and rental homes hard to find, scammers are lurking everywhere and the rental scam is getting even more sophisticated.
Victoria Wells found the perfect home for rent on Facebook Marketplace, on a quiet Covington, Ky. street.
"It was perfect, the most beautiful one I had seen in a long time," she said of the $1,200 per month rental home.
The landlord gave Wells and her roommate the code to an orange box on the door, so they could get inside. They walked through the home and immediately messaged him that they wanted it.
"We loved it," she said.
So they sent a $400 deposit through a money app.
"We went ahead and Cash Apped it to him to hold it," she said.
However, it was the last they heard from the landlord. It turned out he wasn't really with the rental company at all, but instead was a scammer.
Couple starts moving in, not realizing it was a scam
Earlier this year, Brandon Smith and Shelby Moore found the perfect rental home for $1,000 a month.
"It was a dream come true for us," the Hamilton, Ohio couple said.
They even shot videos of their first walk-through inside with their two children, after getting the code to the front door from the "landlord."
"We were all excited about it, ready to move in and everything," Smith said.
However, as they were moving in, they said a man stopped by to inform them it wasn't their house, even though they had signed a contract online, got the front door code, and sent a $1,000 deposit through Venmo.
They too had fallen for the rental scam.
"It sounded realistic at the time because we were just so excited about it," Smith said.
This is happening more and more these days because the scam keeps getting more sophisticated.
Scammers find a home for sale or rent and copy all the photos.
This is the newest spin: they pretend to be potential buyers and get the front door code from the real estate agent, who doesn't realize they are giving the code to an out-of-state scammer.
The scammer then pretends to be the landlord and gives the door code to prospective victims.
Warning signs of a scam
Don't let this happen to you. The FTC says to be suspicious of rental listings if:
- The landlord wants a deposit before you have met in person.
- The landlord is out of town and has no time to meet you.
- You can't go inside the home.
- Or you can go inside the empty home, but only with a door code the landlord gives you via text.
- The landlord asks for a deposit via Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, or gift cards, which are all untraceable.
- The price is much lower than similar homes or apartments.
Victoria Wells' dream home now has a note taped to the door warning others, saying if you found the listing on social media you are probably being scammed. It is too late for her.
"We're out, that's a lot of money on a fixed income," she said.
We called and texted her "landlord" but no one returned our messages.
Brandon Smith and Shelby Moore, in the meantime, have set up a GoFundMe page to try to rebuild their funds.
In the end, if the price seems very low and you can't meet the landlord in person, it may be a scam. So don't waste your money.