Beware the online scam!

This very wired world we live in has spawned a whole new generation of con-artists, flim-flam people, scammers,  scoundrels and other assorted snake oil sales persons. (It was easier when you could assign gender to these labels!)

Some of the biggest scams that newspapers see are for pets and muscle cars. Specifically English bulldog puppies and American heavy metal - GTOs and Valiants. On the recruitment side “work-at-home” positions are coming to us via TDD or TTY calls. We’ve seen enough of these to be very wary. We also get alert bullitens from a company that acts as a watch dog for advertsing scams of any kind.

On the real estate and rental side of advertising there are numerous scams proliferating the web. One of the most recent scams we’ve heard about is for fraudulent rentals. Potential renters read about a property on a website and correspond via email with the alleged owner of a property. Renters usually receive an application which of course gets approved. Then they are instructed to wire funds for the full rental amount or in many cases a deposit to “hold” the property. These prospective renters have been told the will receive keys via FedEx the next day.  Of course the keys never arrive.

The old adage “never by a pig in a poke” would serve well here. In most of the fraudulent situations potential renters never got to see inside the property. They saw the homes from the outside and could see that the places appeared to be empty and  looked to be available. In most cases the properties were actually for rent but not for the great rental price they’d seen online and not by the person they contacted.

In some cases where the potential renters were out of the area, the properties turned out to be for sale, not for rent. Some poor young college student showed up at his newly rented, but sight unseen home, only to find a for sale sign from a local realty planted on the front lawn. When he called the realty company he found that that the home had never been for rent. Again, don’t “buy” sight unseen. I’m thinking some of those mail order brides arrived at their new homes bearing very little resemblance to “their” original photos!!!

Some rules that should always be followed. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. Always meet the landlord or owner face to face. Make sure they show you the property. Ask questions. Never wire money. Get a receipt for the full amount you pay up front. You can always google any address to see what information you can find out before you  contact a potential landlord.

There are websites dedicated to the topic of online fraud. Scamoramo.com and Scambusters.com are two that you can check to find out additonal information about online scams.

If you see a suspicious ad alert the web administrators. Most web sites have a way to flag and/or remove these ads.

In some rental scams the real names of property owners have been used in conjunction with fraudulent email addresses. If you think your property has been used as bait in a scam tell the website to remove the ad. Then file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov/faq, sponsored by the FBI and National White Collar Crime Center.

As real estate and rental professionals we must be ever vigilant and keep ourselves apprised of the scurrulous individuals who populate the web.

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