Help! Zillow scammer! What should I do?

Question

Hello all,

I am trying to find a tenant for my first rental property (sfh).  I posted my ad to Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads (all through Zillow), as well as Craigslist.  Yesterday I called a prospective tenant for the first time and at the beginning of our call she told me that she had been contacted several times (by text and email) by someone claiming to be the owner of the house.  It is a textbook scam, the person is saying he/she is out of town and asked her to go look in the window of my property and send money, etc.  The prospective tenant was kind enough to give me the phone number and email address that the scammer was using.

What should I do?  I do not want this to effect the credibility of my ad or drive away other potential renters.  I am already having trouble with Craigslist and Trulia not displaying my ad - maybe for unrelated reasons.

Should I contact the scammer and play tough?  Should I play along and find out more information?  What would be the best ways of reporting this activity and restoring the credibility of my advertising?

Any thoughts?

James Mc Ree · Answer

You could add something like this to your ad:

-----------

For the protection of all interested tenants, I will always meet you at the property to show it to you and will never ask for money to see the property.  Any requests to do otherwise are from scammers.

-----------

Something like that might keep the shadow off your property and reduce fraud concerns among your prospective tenants.  You could also include a link to Facebook, LinkedIn or your other favorite social media so prospects know what you should look like when they meet you.

Jim.

David Dachtera · Answer

@Nick Brubaker,

Start with your local police department. They can help get things in motion or direct you to the next step in the process.

David J Dachtera

Dawn Brenengen · Answer

@Nick Brubaker You can also add watermarks to your photos to cut down on fraud.  If you add your name and email to the photo, it makes the photo a lot harder to steal

Mary lou L. · Answer

Ive been flagging these types of ads whenever I see them. Craigslist mostly.

I troll daily in the area I am interested in and see the original ads. Then later I see them for less with the identical information but they always leave out the phone number. The emails are something like alisson@Yahoo,com or gregmonte@Gmail,com

I posted my house for rent with no interior pics, and no street number, part because of the scams and the house wasn't completely camera ready. I also give a contact number and by viewing by apt only.

@Nick Brubaker how did the scammer get their info though? Did the prospective tenant respond to an ad?

Mike S. · Answer

Search for your ad on craigslist using similar or exact terms you used in your listing ( usually the scammer will copy your ad verbatim and only change the contact info).  If you find a copy of your ad, report the listing number to Craigslist and tell them a scammer has duplicated your ad and you would like the scammer's ad removed.  Craigslist will usually remove the ad within 24 hours.  They will never let you know this, so the only way to find out is to search if the listing is still there.

Typically, if you are going to get a scammer copying your ad, it will go up shortly after you post it.  They will usually not have a contact number and will list the price some ridiculous amount.  If you are diligent, you may get it removed before anyone sees it.

Mindy Jensen · Answer

@Nick Brubaker,

Another way to keep the scams to a minimum is to not post exterior images or the actual address. Nearest cross streets will give the potential tenant an idea of where the property is located. Even mention that in the ad. This, unfortunately, is not an uncommon scam.

Sam Valme · Answer

Hey @Nick Brusker, This is definitely not uncommon with online postings of any type. One thing we always advise to self managed landlords (and perform ourselves) is to review of fraud policies of these sites.

Zillow.com

Craigslist.com

Many of them will provide a direct email to their fraud departments and they can usually have the listing removed. However, as mentioned above, depending on how long the listing has been posted. The damage to the ad's credibility man already be done. A possible best practice to follow if you have the time would be to simply search for your ad daily to ensure its still unique. Hopefully you can catch any potentially issues before it goes too far.

Good Luck!

Vic French · Answer

I had the same thing happen when I posted to Zillow. The scammers did a screen shot of my ad on Craigslist and posted their own price (lower than mine) and contact information saying that they resided out of state. I posted a notice in my original Craigslist ad that a scammer was at work. The prospective tenants that responded to the fictitious ad were able to give me phone info and suspected location of the scammer but by that time the ad had been posted for three days and the crooks were probably long gone.  I reported it to the police department; the location was someplace in the southern U.S. The story the scammer gave the prospects was that he was a missionary and had relocated out of state and if the prospective tenant would send him the deposit money he would send them the keys and have someone to let them in to inspect the inside of the property.  Of course by that time the scammer would be long gone.  I can't believe people would be this trusting but I suppose there are folks out there desperate for a good deal even if it sounds too good to be true.

Nick Brubaker · Answer

I like the tip about the sign in the window.  Thanks @Allen Clark!

Allen Clark · Answer

I had this happen to me in Seattle and I went after it as aggressively as I could. I talked with the police and they said this is common and almost always is done by people outside of the country. There is very little they could do to follow up. I signed new tenants pretty quickly and then put very visible signs in the windows that said "This house is not for rent".

Watermark all your pictures as someone else said. That helps too!

Help! Zillow scammer! What should I do?

Most Popular Reply