A late night phone call last weekend had me personally offended – with a call coming from a prospective tenant asking for more details on a property they found for rent online that looked too good to be true, but threw up a few red flags along the way.
To be clear, I had no issue with the aspiring tenant, but rather with the enterprising individual that had taken details from a genuine property for lease, and posted their own advert on Facebook for substantially less than the lease price (bargain?) with the minor matter of a little $150 application fee they were charging anyone interested in applying.
Typically, scammers behind fake rentals will “accept” an application, provide bank account details for payment of a bond and rent upfront and then scarper, never to be seen again while the tenant arrives to a home they have NOT in fact rented, often already occupied. The tenant then sits a few thousand dollars poorer, and particularly in the case of those that might have gone all in on the move – potentially sitting in a car with their belongings and nowhere else to take them. Charging people a (illegal) fee upfront in addition to the rest of the fraud just adds insult to injury.
So how do you avoid this kind of scam? The photos look right, the address matches on google and the text looks professional – what else is missing?
Well, while agents will sometimes post on facebook or other social media sites to advertise properties, if there is an agency mentioned, then check out their website to match up contact details against what is included in the ad. Real names and fake numbers or email addresses are an early clue. Searching the property address on google can also yield helpful info – such as a real ad on realestate.com.au or otherwise a recent sale.
Dealing with private owners is a bit trickier, but there are still ways to research. If you can, arrange for someone you know to do a driveby or have a look to see if the property is genuinely available. Look for evidence of ownership such as a rates notice, and for all that is good, DON’T transfer money upfront. Whether its buying a 2nd hand couch or renting a home, I wouldn’t send money ANYWHERE unless you have some kind of certainty of where its going, and what you’ll get in return.