Phony listings
Tina Soper, 46, has been looking online for rental properties in the Dayton area as she prepares to relocate from West Virginia’s northern panhandle.
Soper said she has come across tons of scam ads on Facebook Marketplace and group chat pages purportedly for renters and housing providers in this region.
She saw one ad on Marketplace that featured a home she recognized from a listing on Zillow’s website.
But the ad on Zillow had a significantly higher rent, and the home recently had been offered for sale on the website.
Soper said she contacted the person who posted the ad on Marketplace and asked why the rent was less than it was on Zillow. Soper said she exchanged multiple messages with this person but something did not feel right.
“It was a very determined person,” Soper said. “I stopped because I was like, yeah I don’t believe this one. It’s too good to be true.”
It turns out the listing wasn’t real. She spoke to the realtor listed on Zillow and he told her it was a scam. The realtor also said this same thing happened previously with a different property.
Bogus listings
The Dayton Daily News identified multiple questionable and suspicious rental listings on Facebook Marketplace.
One ad allegedly was for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in downtown Dayton.
But there is no apartment building at the listed address. The address is the location of the federal court building.
The ad was active on Marketplace on Wednesday but had disappeared by Thursday. The Facebook user who posted the listing only joined the social media platform this year, possibly earlier this month.
The profile page had only two posts — both photos used for the profile. The user only had seven Facebook friends.
This newspaper reviewed other listings where the photos also did not match the homes or buildings at the actual addresses.
How to avoid fraud
Scammers posing as landlords try to get people to give them money for bogus housing expenses.
Scammers often copy the pictures and descriptions of online rental listings but replace the agent’s contact information with their own, and post the phony ads on a new site, says the Federal Trade Commission.
“If you call or email about the rental, you’ll reach a scammer, who may take your money for an application fee, deposit, first month’s rent, or vacation rental charge,” the FTC said. “Then the scammer disappears and you’re left with no place to move in to.”
Another scam involves people pretending to have a home available for rent when they do not, but they still try to collect application fees from housing-seekers, said Rhonda Easley, an organizer with the Dayton Tenant Union.
“Because of the lack of transparency in the private rental market coupled with the lack of up-to-date rental registries with our municipalities, there is not a way to really be sure of who is a legitimate landlord with a home for rent and who is not,” she said.
Kalin Gilbert, 33, who lives in Montgomery County, said she’s seen lots of scams but she’s never fallen for any of them. That’s because she does some online research first.
Gilbert said she looks up information in the listings to see if it matches what she can find on Zillow or other places. Unfortunately, Gilbert said the problem with rental ad scams seem to be getting worse and worse.
Soper also said she does online research to try to figure out if a listing is real or bogus.
She usually clicks on the profile pages of Facebook users who post rental ads. She said it’s a red flag when the profile pages were only created recently and when the users have very few photos, information or friends.
Soper said it’s also suspicious when listings have out-of-state phone numbers. Some listings do not include the addresses of the rental units, which could be a sign of trouble.
Soper said she trusts postings on Zillow more than ads on Facebook Marketplace and group chat pages.
But Soper said Marketplace has some legitimate ads from mom-and-pop type landlords, who only have a unit or two to rent out.
Hannah Hundley, a spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said that consumers should be skeptical of ads offering rental housing for cheap prices.
She said consumers should not send any money until they have seen a property in person or verified the identity of the person they have been messaging.
“If you visit the property, look for signs indicating the name of the property owner or manager,” the Attorney General’s Office said. “Contact that company before signing a lease or paying any money.”
Other tips to avoid scams include:
- Use a search engine to look for reviews and comments about the rental company. Search the name of the company along with terms such as “complaint” or “scam” to read about other renters’ experiences with the company.
- Search your county auditor’s website for a record of who owns the property. Be aware that scam artists may pretend to be the true owner.
- Don’t trust potential “landlords” or property owners who say they had to leave the country quickly for business or missionary work. Scam artists often make these claims.
- Beware of requests for wire transfers or prepaid money cards as payment methods, especially if you have not seen the property. These are preferred methods for scammers because once the money is sent, it is nearly impossible to recover.
- Be wary if you find rental ads offering properties that are listed for sale on other websites.
- Copy and paste an image from an online listing into a search engine to determine if it has appeared elsewhere online.
- Be wary of landlords or property managers who offer to rent property to you without gathering any information from you, such as your credit score or a background check.
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