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SALT LAKE CITY — Annabella resident Richard Clark had a would-be renter of the home he owns next to his own in the tiny central Utah town knock on his door a few months ago.
The man told Clark he was thinking about renting the house and wondered what the neighbors were like. Clark didn’t immediately let on that he was the owner or that he had rented the house some time ago.
“I was bewildered,” he said.
Clark asked the man how he found the house. The man showed him a website on his phone, complete with photos of the inside of the house. He told Clark that the “owner” told him to look at the house and then send a deposit if he liked it.
Clark immediately called the “owner” asking, “Why are you trying to rent my house?” The man who answered immediately hung up. It appears he had stolen Clark’s listing from another website and posted it on his own.
A Better Business Bureau nationwide investigation released Tuesday found that fraud is widespread in the online rental home and vacation rental market, with 43% of online shoppers encountering a fake listing and more than 5 million consumers losing money to such scams.
“I think the biggest message from this study is don’t believe everything that you see and read,” said Jane Rupp, president and CEO of the BBB of Utah and northern Nevada.
The study found 85% of consumers encountering fake rental listings do not fall for them. But of the 5.2 million people who did lose money, the median loss was $400, and 1 in 3 victims lost more than $1,000.
Ryan Boswell was almost one of them.
Boswell inquired online about a two-bedroom Salt Lake City apartment for $900 a month he found on Facebook Marketplace just before he and his wife, Taylor, got married in October. He emailed an application and was told he could have the place. He was asked to send a copy of his driver’s license and Social Security number and wire money to a different state. Boswell sent his license, but not the $670 the deposit or his Social Security number.
“It was just a little sketchy,” the Utah Valley University student said.
Don’t let online predators con you into renting a bogus property.#AvoidingRentalScams#BBBhttps://t.co/vKF4q9KmoApic.twitter.com/NBsXv2VXoB
— BBB (@bbb_us) December 10, 2019
Boswell noticed the Facebook ad seemed off when the supposed owner claimed to be living in Europe. He did some internet searches and made some phone calls. The ad turned out to be stolen from the real owner’s internet listing.
“Everything that was on there was true except for the fact that they were not the people listing the apartment for sale,” he said.
Scammers copy the photo and description of a property, post it online with their own contact information and try to get a deposit and first month’s rent from the victim in one of the most common types of rental fraud.
Fraudsters also might communicate only by email or text message and claim to be out of the country and unavailable to show the property. Once the victim sends money, the scammer disappears.
“While an advertised rental that meets your needs at a great price might be tempting, it just may be a scam,” Rupp said. “Consumers shouldn’t rush into paying upfront fees for renting housing sight-unseen. Instead, take time to verify the details of the listings.”
Online classified ad sites such as Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are common places for apartment hunters to search. They also check websites such as Apartments.com, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and Homes.com.
Fake listings turn up frequently on those sites, despite the companies’ efforts to keep fake listings out and warn consumers about potential fraud, according to the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB found that younger people are the most likely to fall for rental fraud, with those age 18 to 34 making up 42% of victims.
Scams also frequently appear on vacation rental websites such as Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway, according to the BBB. They follow the same pattern, preying on vacationers’ inability to check out a listing before paying money for it.
Scammers also might lure renters away from Airbnb to deal with the “landlord” directly or spoofing Airbnb’s site to impersonate the landlord and the company’s payment portal. Those companies, too, have warned consumers about potential fraud and taken steps against fake listings, according to the BBB.
