Realtors across Florida report rental fraud

ORLANDO, Fla. – July 16, 2009 – Scam artists targeting rental property listings operate statewide, according to Florida Association of Realtors® (FAR) members who responded to a news article in Tuesday’s EarlyBird (http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n3-071409.cfm). While the article focused on Pasco and Hernando counties, Realtors in Panama City Beach, Pensacola and Jacksonville reported similar activities.

“This is happening everywhere, including Canada and in many different countries,” writes Jon Lioncourt, an administrative assistant with Watson Property Management in Jacksonville. “Our listings have been copied onto Craigslist for quite some time. It is reported to IC3, a government Internet watchdog that forwards info to the proper authorities, such as the CIA and FBI.”

In the scam, criminals fraudulently lift legitimate rental property data from listings, change the contact phone numbers and/or email addresses, and advertise the rental on Craigslist. The criminals charge below-market rates and require one month’s deposit and one month’s security. Consumers, attracted by the low rate, complete the deal online even without access to the property.

According to Lioncourt, the fraudulent ads sometimes list his name and ask the “renters” to send their money oversees. It’s not unusual, he says, for these people to later contact the rental agency and demand a refund of their money, even though the agency had nothing to do with the deal. “After all, Realtors are being scammed too,” Lioncourt says.

Donna Fries, a Panama City Beach Realtor, says the scam operates in her area too. She says the fraudulent ad uses the real owner’s name or the Realtor’s name, but a contact method that goes only to the criminals.

She offers the following suggestions for detecting the scam:

• The Craigslist ad is a carbon copy of the original ad with correct spelling, good English and a photo. Follow-up email responses, however, usually have incorrect spelling and awkward English.

• Scammers offer rental prices up to 40 percent below actual value, making it an attractive deal. If potential renters see identical ads in different locations with different prices, the lower-priced one is probably a scam.

• Criminals ask for deposit and rent money to be sent by Western Union or another method that works like cash, and it usually can’t be tracked or refunded.

• Many times, they use a foreign phone calling card that cannot be traced.

• According to Lioncourt, criminals usually have an excuse for not showing the home’s interior, such as a sudden overseas assignment that is keeping them out of the country.

Lioncourt offers one more word of warning: On rare occasions, a similar scam can be run locally. Criminals may ask to see a rental and, while doing so, make a copy of the key. After that, they might go so far as to show the property and even offer fake documents for the potential renter to sign. Phone calls are made from a pay-as-you-go cell phone that the criminals can throw away after they receive the money.

Realtors who discover a potential scam can contact the local sheriff’s office and file a report, the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) (http://www.ic3.gov), or any other law enforcement office.

© 2009 FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

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