Summertime is the most popular time to move, but local consumer advocates warn it’s also a popular time for scammers to target renters.
“Some scams are very cyclical. And this one is seasonal,” said Kristen Johnson, Director of Communications with Better Business Bureau Serving Connecticut, “Between May and August, we see the most amount of moving and rental scams.”
They can vary, Johnson said, but these scams have become more common thanks to social media. A scammer – operating from anywhere in the world – can advertise a fake apartment online, then create a fake sense of urgency to score a security deposit or application fee from an interested renter and leave very few traces behind.
“A lot of times the scammers who are pretending to be landlords will make up some excuse of why they can’t show you the property in person,” Johnson said. “But what they’re really doing is they’re stealing pictures of real homes and real apartments, and they’re pretending that they’re available to people. And these people are losing thousands of dollars because of it.”
Three rental scams in Connecticut were reported to Better Business Bureau in the last two years, according to the group’s scam tracker. Johnson said one scam resulted in a victim losing over $2,000.
“It was a company out of New York and they had posted an ad for a home in Middletown. It turned out there was a family living there,” Johnson said.
Nationally, over 230 rental scams have been reported this…
