FBI warns of rental scams | GMA

[@MissTopDJ007]

This is why I refuse to have a keyless entry.

[@katrinataylor6604]

True that

[@rankat1841]

Renting and home buying are two of those things that shouldn't be 100% transacted on line. Period!

[@mikegee8875]

and voting

[@rankat1841]

@@mikegee8875 That makes it three things, not two. 😉 Voting isn't conducted on line. Or are you just trying to start another ridiculous conspiracy theory? 🤨🤦

[@mikegee8875]

@@rankat1841 voting isn't conducted online and hopefully never will be

[@rankat1841]

@@mikegee8875 🤦 you brought it up.

[@mikegee8875]

Yes, I brought it up as ANOTHER one of those things that shouldn't be 100% transacted online, Period.

[@DJRenee]

This has been going on for YEARS

[@Buttersausage]

Look up the owner of the house via public records!!!!

[@benjaminlibertarianscorpio]

she gave the guy $2,000 before meeting him

[@cecegiles7753]

She's really ignorant for that

[@katrinataylor6604]

Hell naw

[@markbrown5117]

Come on ..... that house for 900 bucks????

[@ShakyRed07]

Utilities included: Electricity, Gas, Water, Trash Pickup AND High Speed Internet???🤔

[@katrinataylor6604]

Lol

[@judithgrace9850]

Only meet the person in person. And give a check only, after getting the key. Checks can be stopped.

[@you3ee]

No Landlord with a brain would accept a check as first payment from someone moving in. That would be beyond stupid

[@tA_aT287]

@@you3ee cashiers check

[@you3ee]

@@tA_aT287 Cashiers check isnt much better. unless you call the call the bank and verify it before signing with tenant but even then I will only accept one if its from a local bank where i can easily veriy it.

[@ExceptionalLibra]

Almost got us in Memphis, TN. It was a Chinese guy we were in contact with. When we asked him about doing a walk through, he said he couldn't do one because he was out of town, we immediately knew it was a scam. After doing a little more research, we found the real owners of the house. We called the company and explained what was happening. After that we reported him to MPD while he was on speaker phone insisting he owned the listing 🤣🤣. They hacked the lock box and reposted the listing with their information on it.

[@Songs-lr4wt]

You can just say a guy. But you wrote a CHINESE guy, like now I should address you as WHITE guy

[@ExceptionalLibra]

@@Songs-lr4wt Huh? He said he was a Chinese American when he gave his excuse as to why he couldn't meet us. Nothing I said was wrong.

[@temle7489]

@@Songs-lr4wt Nothing wrong with saying a Chinese guy, you idiot. I am Asian and I am not offended. And I voted for trump too LOL You fkn snowflakes are soft.

[@melis6294]

How in the heck do they hack the lock box? I don't understand

[@ExceptionalLibra]

@@melis6294 The lock box is connected to a system that has been hacked multiple xs..

[@CheckTimeKB]

I was scammed out of $2,200 . He was an Asian guy who claimed to be an agent for MYND Property Management, gave me a code to a black box that had keys in it, and gave me a rental agreement and I zelled the deposit and the next day he changed his number. I went to the police but nothing has been done. I am on the verge of being homeless. The police, Bank of America, and Zelle is not helping me from being scammed. The system has failed me.

[@niscafe314]

check property records too

[@sshukla7975]

When renting or buying, in person was the norm and still is!!! Renting a property meet up in the driveway and ask around neighborhood. Buying follows the same process. I don't know, how lazy one has to be to just accept online things on face value. When we moved from Midwest to Texas, my spouse flew on business meeting first and met the people upfront. First in coffee shop then at the door and inside the house. And he asked to be introduced for reference in community and workplace if something goes wrong in case. 1 person never answered the calls after that, while other family introduced friends and happily asked neighbours to meet us (secretly we were watched as well,like what we were doing with the property). A year on, we had no problems and neighborhood became ours as well. It is time consuming and taxing but why would anyone risk their money,peace of mind and even risk lives for easy bargain. Just dumb. We have had subleased apartments but even then we always got the front office involved. We asked at front office about if their was such a tenant and about their lease and of course their history of any reported behavior. They won't tell you that mostly, but raised eyebrows would always give answers. Take your time to tour and knock on next-door as well. People are getting soooooo comfortable that scammers and sociopaths are having field day. This is dumb.

[@adriennerobinson1180]

Sad but True SMH

[@kymyilmaz-ndao7501]

Some time last year I was visiting one of my daughters, she was at work and her daughters were at school. I'm sitting in the front and noticed a head of a person go passed the window, I got up to see if it's the mail man, it was not. A young male came to the door saying he was told that he could do a walk through because he has rented the house. I said excuse me??!!! My daughter lives here and this house is not for rent. He continues saying he sent $ and was told someone still lives here but will be moving soon. Again, I told him this house is not for rent. He leaves and returns w an older male. I told the older man same thing. Older male says this house is on line saying it's for rent and they came to look at it because they were told it's ok to do a walk through. They both were nice but at this time I'm getting a little upset, why would someone do this and potentially put others in harms way!😡 They shown me the ad that was on the internet and it was the exact house my daughter was renting. I told the men that my daughter was not moving out and she's been renting this house for over six years. I called my daughter to ask her did she know anything about the house being for rent and she did not. She called the owners, they live about three blocks up the same street, and of course the owners didn't list the house at all saying it was for rent/available. Some things are to good to be true. If I'm going to rent anything I want to do a walk through with you and give you a money order in your hand and get contract signed when I give you my money, none of that go look at the place alone & you giving me a code...nope!!! If you don't have time to meet w me to get my hard earned $ then why should I trust it's a real/honest rental/rental contract.

[@seannadiaz4028]

I rented my condo online during Covid got accepted online. It was legit. I was lucky and blessed, but do your research people!

[@yubuiltlikethat]

What company/site did you use?

[@rodx.8723]

Rule number 1....Don't look for properties on Craigslist

[@adriennerobinson1180]

Truth Indeed, Craigslist is the worst. They to be taken down.

[@usdmarketcap]

Why do you say so, kindly explain

[@WhereOceansMeeet]

If you're doing a reverse image search online for places or even people (on dating sites), put the image in Photoshop (or something similar) and reverse the image and search both. Some scammers are getting 'smart' and flipping the images so that they won't show up in a regular search. But if you flip them back, they might. Stay safe out there, people!

[@adriennerobinson1180]

OH WOW, THANK YOU FOR this information.

[@sydneymichelle8357]

Great tip!!!!

[@Ahoto_papa_bi]

How did the scammer get access to the lock code?

[@JonesJr876]

These tips aren't good enough.

[@royaldiadem_]

Hacked the Landlord… how about they got the locked code because it’s someone who previously viewed the property.

[@c.rutherford]

Having done it I think its hard enough to be a real landlord I can't imagine anyone wanting to fake it lol

[@scalecraft4663]

No money up front. You can trace the Zelle payment via what bank and account it was put in.

[@kingafendikingafendi8897]

Is like once falling from the ladder and the ladder fall on you , people are struggling to rise and yet got scam 😒

[@katrinataylor6604]

😂

[@Relaxinghypnoasmr]

That was a pro tip. The scammers never demonstrate mastery of the English language.

[@melis6294]

English is my second language and I'm a landlord. Are you gonna ruled me out just for my accent and imperfect English???

[@Relaxinghypnoasmr]

@@melis6294 is that really what you think I meant? You are not a scammer. I'm saying if it comes from a big corporation supposedly, and there's glaring grammatical errors it's likely not legit

[@studiomanhud8945]

Don't rent from a private person; use a rental agency.

[@milonthemovekamilkamilion2911]

I went through this during Pandemic had found a rental on website contacted Landlord looked at property yet Landlord never showed up kept emailing did property search the person who posted property wasn't owner and tried to scam grateful the City of Philadelphia saved me from Financial loss wanted funds sent through wire it's upsetting this happens I was lucky yet heard of other victims

[@kgal1298]

There was a house by me that had a sign up because this happened a lot last year. Doesn't seem to be up anymore so I think they must have found the issue, but still that's really sad.

[@TCwade8202]

this is exactly what happened to me and it's a damn shame and it was the African man, or Nigerian!! I went to go see couple of other houses it was Africans who was giving me the codes to these homes so it's a ring going on right here in St Louis Missouri and it's a damn shame taking people money every dog got their day though some of them got three or four what goes around come around you reap what you sow you sow more than you reap cuz God sees everything💯💯

[@adriennerobinson1180]

Those Nigerians are the worst. Ugh

[@jaquanpowell4605]

🤡😒

[@Ahoto_papa_bi]

A teenager sitting in a slum in Nigeria has beaten your intelligence. That shows how dumb you are. He hasn’t even step foot in America before but he’s still able to scam you….your desperation made you fall for that scam

[@iamwinningrightnow]

My deceased father could see that this was not lagit.

[@katrinataylor6604]

😭

[@kendallwhitfield5504]

If something looks like it's too good to be true it probably is! You're not going to find good deals when it come to housing in this market.

[@Monicaam1989]

I was scammed out of money from a app luckily it was $50 but I tried telling the other apps they wasn’t available they lied and I really need somewhere to live and I am on disability

[@yesimemoin0935]

This is going to happen more often as AirBnBers convert to long term listings; people won't question why it's listed elsewhere, why there's a lockbox on a single occupancy home, etc.

[@anthonydefex]

In my Brooklyn NY apartment building back in 2015, there was a couple who scammed a bunch of people. They lived in the building for about 2 years, had stopped paying rent early on, and were leaving. A few weeks before they left, they posted the apartment for rent in CL, met with people in person, did agreements with peoples, took deposits, perhaps even gave keys, moved out. Then many peoples started showing up, some at the same time, others were not able to get in, to discovered that it was all a scam.

[@katrinataylor6604]

But why give any money and they are not walking you through naw 😭 it's a dead give away it's a scam

[@kerrylim6058]

Making money is an action. Keeping money is behavior. Growing money is knowledge.😊

[@jackleonard575]

Same here, a Transformations of £4000 to a £15,400 in just 2 weeks, He's the really best

[@creepycraiyons3519]

I like that. Thank you. Who coined the phrase.

[@fannisabel]

Show your hair first

[@FairBeautyEssentials]

These scams probably the owners are behind it themselves🙄

[@damienrockstarthholyonofg3103]

I am a realtor and I can tell you that the people in on this scam are the actual landlord themselves, AND/OR the Realtor. Realtors and Landlords are the ONLY people that have access to those codes. Bad Realtor or Bad Landlord. So: Check out the "showing time' for that house, find any and all realtors who have EVER shown the house, and then get the landlords list of friends and pals and look there. Crime is an inside job by all the people who perpetrate it. It's always an inside job. Always.

[@BronikaSaldina]

Please stop all this fraudulent people.. my apartment was scammed when we went on vacation to other country.. somebody went inside our apartment and rented.. we suspended is our neighbor next door..

[@courtneypeace9970]

I was a victim of same situation 🥺

[@usdmarketcap]

I see you have lost money to these realtor and real estate scammers, I lost money to them but I couldn't let it slide, I registered a complaint with the IC3 and they traced the loser and got him arrested and my money was sent back

[@stillhasitall2010]

Also you could look up the tax records to see who actually owns the home and verify the identity.

[@adriennerobinson1180]

This is NOT new.Terrible SMH

[@blackraspberry9509]

She rode the short bus 🚐 to school.

[@katiix]

I almost got scammed but it was too good to be home so I followed my gut instinct and investigated more. I went to the house before sending any money and when I got there the house in the pictures wasn't there. It was a close call! My friend's mother got scammed though.

[@usdmarketcap]

Tell her to go register a complaint with the IC3

[@seand67]

So what is the FBI gonna do about this ???

[@AlexZ-lc6nl]

Moving to a big city we had a list of potential apts we found online. All trash. View it in person first. Always.

[@gottalovegabe1176]

Umm wouldn’t it seem odd to you that the potential landlord gives you the code to a lock box? I mean who would give out a code to a total stranger????

[@dutch.818]

How about what to do and where to report this kind of shit and actually speak with someone !

[@abeaut81]

Craigslist and Facebook marketplace are dubs when renting. Don't do it

[@suavetemper3396]

I believe this is happening now I’m Houston …

[@stevendorris5713]

Good Morning America Goodbye Journalism

[@sassynana5201]

???? This is a good story.

[@WayneKing-w3y]

Realtor busted

[@BronikaSaldina]

Somebody remove our recorder video Camara..

[@JasonHarrison-le7mw]

Money hrry bill holder

[@fannisabel]

Show hair first

[@p33t3rpark3r]

why you you send cash upfront

[@California_bigtree]

I had 4 realtors contact me about a property that I was interested in. The first one that I was talking to he was like pay $75 for application fee and then I paid that and next thing you know I was approved. Then he was asking for Deposit and I can pay the rent before I move in. I had saw the house and everything but I got to thinking, then I started asking him questions! I advised him that let meet up and then we could talk about the rent and deposit. Once he said he was a truck driver and that he do not stay here, how am I supposed to get the key if you do not stay here at all. He said he get his family member to meet me somewhere but it sounded like a lie. Then I said something about being scammed again , he denied he was trying to scam me and I saw the cash app, It was a woman name and also She was a white old lady and the person who was i On the phone sounded African. The second once was sounding low key legit but once again he let me see the house, but said he was a truck driver and don’t stay down here just like the last guy! The third one gave me a bank account and so I went to the bank and opened an account and I asked the banker if this was fishy about this account cause he was saying this is his account but it’s for his daughter who is 6yrs old and he want someone to take care of his house until his daughter gets grown.😂😂😂 these people really be trying to scam us innocent people who is just trying to make ends meet and have a place to stay in…

[@davidbriz7066]

Had a similar experience. The worst part is the application has sensitive information. Now I am freezing my credit for life 🙄