OH NO! Facebook Marketplace SCAM on My LISTING….Deerwood Realty and Friends…Ep. 48

#realestate #scam #renterbeware

Intro: What happens when a scammer tries to make money off your listing?

I listed a house for sale this morning. Things were going great, we had a lot of showings scheduled and everything was as it should be.

Around noon, I got a call from a fellow in Arnold. He asked me about the house, said that he had a hard time believing that it was just $800/month rent.

Confused, I asked him, “What?” The house isn’t for lease. It’s for sale. Why did he think it was for lease? He said that he saw it on Craigslist, then said no it was Facebook Marketplace

He said that the called the person with the listing and he told him that we was the owner. He lived in Texas, and he would lease him the house if he just sent a security deposit. As soon as he got the security deposit, he would send the keys, or have someone meet him at the house.

I told this renter that it was not for lease…but I did thank him for poking around a little more because I absolutely HATE when good people get scammed on real estate listings.

What is the approximate scam?

So, the basic scam is that someone takes a listing from Zillow, or Realtor.com, and then just takes that information and adds a new Facebook Marketplace listing for rent. Now, I have the listing on Zillow and Realtor.com, and at least a thousand other places so it’s important for the scammer to find a spot where I’m not. They chose Facebook marketplace because I wasn’t listing it there…no point because it wasn’t for rent.

Now that they have a rental listing up, they wait for someone to call on it, tell them some story, like they are sick and can’t show the house, or that they are an out of town owner and need your “help” as a tenant you would be so kind if you just wire the security deposit through Paypal or something …it would be a nice thing.

What ends up happening is that you send the money, and then keys never show up either in the mail or at the house to move in.

What are some things that you can do to protect yourself?

1. Realize that you have the ultimate say on whether you go forward with the transaction or not….until you send the money. If the scammer says they’ve already got 10 people ahead of you, let them find out it’s a scam.
2. Look for red flags in the story.
a. House rent super low versus other houses you’ve seen
b. Out of town owner
c. “sending” money. If you can’t hand someone the money at the time you get the keys, it’s a huge red flag.
3. Do some research! This fellow today drove by the house and saw my name and contact information, so he called me. Usually a scammer wants to get into a 1 to 1 relationship…as soon as the potential tenant called me it became impossible for him to keep the scam alive.(for this tenant)

What did I do?
1. First off, I just hate to see people get ripped off…so even though it wasn’t directly related to me, I did feel the need to step up and try to keep others from getting scammed
2. I went on Facebook marketplace and I flagged it as a scam…the listing was immediately removed. But I worry….there’s nothing to keep this scammer from listing another property for fake rent.

What can be done?

1. This used to be a Craigslist scam. It got so bad that in some cities, Craigslist charges a nominal fee to list a property. Facebook Marketplace has probably crushed Craigslist…at least it seems like it. But Marketplace doesn’t charge to list stuff…and here’s my issue.

Do you know that I am a licensed real estate broker and I cannot even advertise my listings on Google or Facebook the way I’d like to? I can’t list something within a zip code..in fact I have to list within 15 miles or less of my office…..and that stretches into Illinois where I’m not even licensed! It’s crazy. This is why I stopped advertising on facebook in the first place. They make it really hard for a legitimate agent to advertise, but they are a main source of fraud in these other housing instances.

Nothing is perfect…we all know this. Please, Protect yourself as best as you can. Know that there are rental scams out there and be careful.

Podcast call in number = 314-274-3964
media@deerwoodrealtystl.com

Source: None, it just happened to me

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