NEWS ALERT

The Internet Evils Have
 Entered the Rental Business. 
By Mike Hill, Georgia Landlord Solutions.

The scammers will “hijack” a legitimate manager’s ad, substitute themselves as the landlord and try to collect the deposit and first month’s rent themselves for a property they don’t own or manage.

I belong to the National Association of Rental Property Managers (NARPM), formed for those who manage houses and small rental properties, instead of apartment complexes, which is a different world. Following is a shortened story from a property manager in California who, like many others, advertises vacancies on Craig’s List.

The manager had a house listed at $2,500 a month, but had the ad “hijacked” by someone who advertised the same property on Craig’s List for only $1,500 a month using the current tenant’s name as the landlord/manager, substituting the scammer’s phone number and using a private P.O address to receive the deposit and first month’s rent. Which worked.

The “new” tenant then confronted the current tenant, ready to move in which, of course, the current tenant didn’t know anything about. The “tenant” then demanded the current tenant return his security deposit and rent money which, of course, the current tenant also didn’t know anything about. That’s also (of course) when the real landlord/property manager was dragged into the mess.

Turned out the new “tenant”, by the way, was a police officer who, the manager said, should have suspected there was something wrong with a $2,500 house being rented for $1,000 less. To add insult to injury, whoever pulled the scam now has all the personal information the policeman put on the fake application. You know, stuff like his Social Security #, where he banks and his account number, his dog’s name, the size of his gun .. plus his money.

They catch that guy and he’s gonna have a serious cop problem, I suspect.