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Attorney General Mike DeWine
DeWine Warns of Home
Rental Scams
(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine warned consumers to
beware of home rental scams. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has
received over 40 reports about the scams in 2017, and summer is a peak
time for moving and traveling.
In a typical rental scam, a con artist posts an ad online offering a
house or apartment for rent. When interested consumers respond to the
ad, the con artist tells them to send a deposit. Later, the consumers
discover that the rental ad was phony and the con artist had no
affiliation with the property. Reported losses have ranged from $250 to
$5,000.
“Scam artists will say, ‘You send us the money, and we’ll send you the
keys,’ but that’s a lie,” Attorney General DeWine said. “The truth is
these con artists are offering properties they don’t own and hoping
people will take the bait. We encourage people to be very careful. If
someone’s asking you to wire a deposit for a property you’ve never seen
in person, there’s a good chance it’s a scam.”
To make the scams seem believable, con artists often steal photos and
property information from legitimate real estate listings then repost
the information as rental property ads on Craigslist or other sites.
The advertised rent is often low, and con artists generally tell people
to wire a few hundred dollars (or more) to secure the rental or to
prevent others from viewing the property.
Signs of the scam include:
Requests for payment via wire transfer, money order, prepaid card, or
gift card.
Ads offering below-market rates on houses or apartments.
Rental ads offering properties that are listed for sale on other
websites.
Landlords who offer to rent to you immediately, without checking your
credit.
Requests for you to wire money before you’ve seen the property.
Landlords who claim they’re out of the country for business or
missionary work.
To avoid scams:
Be wary of requests for wire transfers, money orders, prepaid money
cards, or gift cards. These are preferred payment methods for scammers,
because once payment is provided, it is nearly impossible to recover.
Be skeptical of ads offering below-market rates on houses or
apartments. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Check the county auditor’s website to determine who owns the property.
Be aware that scam artists may pretend to be the true owner.
Don’t send any money until you’ve seen a property in person and/or
verified that the person communicating with you is truly who he or she
claims to be.
Be wary of landlords, property owners, or real estate professionals who
say they had to leave the country quickly for business or missionary
work. These kinds of claims are made often by scam artists.
Be wary of landlords or property managers who offer to rent property to
you without gathering any information from you, such as your credit
score or a background check.
Copy and paste an image from an online listing into a search engine to
determine if it has appeared elsewhere online.
Read and follow the scam prevention tips provided by any house or
apartment-searching websites you use.
Real estate agents and sellers can help protect their listings by
watermarking their photos and reporting fraudulent postings to the
website where they appeared.
In addition to rental scams, consumers also should watch out for
closing-cost scams that target home buyers or sellers. In these scams,
a con artist typically poses as a title office or a real estate agent
and emails the home buyer or seller with instructions to wire closing
costs to a certain location. The instructions seem legitimate, but the
message is bogus and any money sent will go to a scammer.
Consumers can learn more about scams or report potential scams to the
Ohio Attorney General’s Office at www.OhioProtects.org or 800-282-0515.
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