ndegaris
(Neil DeGaris, CMI® KY License # 102167)
1
Copied and pasted from Nextdoor app.
SCAM ALERT: We found out yesterday that our home (which we OWN) was fraudulently listed on all of the various online home listing sites (Zillow, Trulia etc.) as for rent by a scammer. The individual has created a pretty elaborate back story and is trying to get $2k security deposits to hold the property for people, and is even posing as my husband and myself (using our names) to communicate with people. He’s even registered a phone number with my husband’s name listed on the caller ID. We found this out because people have shown up at our door asking if our house is actually for rent. One person actually paid the deposit and were given a date they would get the keys to move in. We’ve reported this to the police and reported the listing as a scam anywhere we could but it’s been extremely stressful to try to deal with. BEWARE of this scam and NEVER pay a deposit for a property you haven’t seen in person!!!
This has been going on in the St Louis Missouri area for quite a while. The difference is they’re using vacant homes, usually owned by out of state investors. Get a big security deposit and a month or two rent up front, then the people show up to move in and discover it was a scam. And the scammers are from out of state of course.
I never even considered that Nextdoor would be a place that people look for a house to rent. They must have a classified section that I don’t know about.
Thanks for the post, Neil!
1 Like
ndegaris
(Neil DeGaris, CMI® KY License # 102167)
5
14 years ago or so I put a house up for sale. My agent had us put signs in the window NOT FOR RENT, and registered the house as for sale with the Police Department so that we’d have a record of the house being for sale if scammers tried to rent it out.
Someone still broke in and stole the kitchen faucet.
Had an agent tell me a story lately where she got a call on her listing and went to show it. Her contact person asked her not to say much to his family members that were coming to look with him. FF a couple weeks and the “family members” called her to ask for the keys since they had agreed to rent it and give a couple thousand dollars deposit.
