Are you scared of getting Fake Landlord References?

[Vitaliy Merkulov]

I've recently detected a fake landlord reference, but I almost got "fooled" by the "professional landlord reference service" that the applicant hired to fake their landlord reference. Has anyone dealt with this?

If you google "Fake Landlord Reference Service" you will see many options for renters. This is how they work, they ask the renter to provide information about their lease, move-in/out dates, rent amount, address, etc... 

Your applicant provides the phone number of the "fake service" in place of their real landlord, when you call the landlord to verify their landlord reference, they answer all the questions that you ask them, they even are able to fax you the response with the "Fake Property Management" companies' letter head.

Here is what ReferencePal offers as a "Fake Landlord Reference" service

How worried are you about this? Or am I overacting about this, and should not worry about this because it's not as bad as I think? Anyone have any tips on a bulletproof method to detect fake landlord reference checks every time?

[Joshua S.]

This is why I also do a full background and credit check as well. I use Cozy.co for everything. They charge the prospective tenant a fee to provide me with their background check and credit report. They're the most comprehensive landlord resource I've found and it's free to use.

I was not aware that fake landlord reference websites even existed... So thanks for posting this.  I wouldn't be too worried about it. Only thing I can think to do would be to do a search for the name and phone number that's given and see if they exist somewhere. You can also use a service like Spokeo to find information about them.