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Renter beware…Protect Yourself From Scammers

Renter beware…Protect Yourself From Scammers

By Jo-Anne Oliveri, ireviloution intelligence, Brisbane, Australia

This morning as I was about to rush out the door I heard a warning about rental scams on our national morning news broadcast. Naturally I had to stop and listen to what this was all about. All too often I hear our real estate industry being slammed because of disgruntled clients. But, so often, we only ever hear one side of the story – the tenants.

So, I thought, ‘Oh no, here’s another chance to slam the property management industry’. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we can actually benefit from this news story. Here’s our opportunity to promote the benefits of using a licensed property management, buildium, online property management softwareproperty management agency.

There are internet scams whereby businesses or scamming individuals lease out properties that do not exist. The property does exist, however it is definitely not available for lease because it is not owned or even managed by the person advertising it. The property’s advertiser asks the applicant to supply all their personal details, including copies of passport and driver’s license, and pay all the money upfront on approval. The business or individual scammer, pretending to be the rightful property owner, supplies the applicant copies of their own passport, credit card, teacher’s union card and photos of the property. Now first up…why would an applicant need any of this information from a property owner? Why do property owners need to supply information confirming their identity? This should be the applicant’s first warning sign that something isn’t right!

The applicant is then sent a tenancy agreement from the property owner’s ‘lawyer’ requesting money to be transferred to a particular (usually overseas) bank account. The applicant signs the lease and pays the money.

This particular person became a little suspicious (took her long enough!) when the ‘property owner’ asked for more money. On visiting the apartment, which was already occupied by an existing tenant, the tenant advised that several people had been caught up in the same scam for that same apartment.

Rental scams are easy to set up and are fronts for numerous other criminal activities. The obvious being identity theft.

So we’ve seen just how easy it is for fake property owners to advertise real properties and rent them to unsuspecting tenants. These businesses or individuals don’t even have to live in the area, or country for that matter, to ‘rent out’ real properties.

This scam goes one step further. I was contacted by a person who was very nervous about leasing a property. He had already been scammed and suffered quite a nasty financial loss due to the unfortunate experience.

The person, let’s call him ‘Buddy’, actually went to inspect the property. All was good with nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, the property was perfect for his needs and the availability was perfect timing. There was about a three to four week period before the property would be available for Buddy to move into. The property owner, who was still living in the property, had accepted an overseas transfer. Buddy met the property owner who was leasing the property out himself. Buddy thought that was a perfect situation. He would be dealing directly with the owner who would manage the property and therefore arrange any necessary maintenance. Perfect, Buddy thought, no real estate agents to deal with, hassle him or provide more broken promises. Buddy was over Property Managers.

Buddy knew this property would be snapped up quickly so he signed the lease. Money was transferred directly to the owner’s account. The lease was negotiated and Buddy agreed to pay three months rent up front plus his bond of just over $8,000. The owner gave Buddy his contact details, a mobile phone number and generic email address, should he need to contact him prior to move in date.

No worries. Buddy did contact him a few times with various questions prior to move in day and all his questions were responded to. No reason at all why Buddy should feel the least bit suspicious. Arrangements were made and the owner was to meet Buddy at the property on the move in date to hand over the keys and remaining documents.

Well, this is where the horror story starts…

Tune in next week to see what happens to our poor Buddy!

 

 

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