Preventing scammers from using my listings

[Zeb B.]

I have a few tenants moving out, so I am getting ready to list a few single family homes for rent. Last year I had scammers download the photos and property info I had posted on Zillow, Apartments.com etc. The scammers then created their own ads on Zillow, Craigslist and Apartments.com. When I found out about the duplicate ads, I was able to contact the websites and have them taken down, but it was whack-a-mole for several weeks. I later found out from a police report that a prospective tenant who I never had any interaction with lost about $5,000 to one of these scams. With housing in short supply, there are apparently plenty of people willing to wire thousands of dollars to someone they have never met, without any evidence that the person they are wiring the money to has access to or any association with the property.

These types of scams are very common in the area, and I am wondering what "best practices" people use to avoid having their properties used by a third party to scam a prospective tenant.

I am planning to add a watermark to my listing photos with an email address. Any other ideas?

[Bill B.]

Click on the magnifying glass in the upper corner and you’ll see previous questions and answers. It mostly comes down to watermarks with your email/ phone number.