Rent to Own Scam

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Mar 2016 Posts: 4

I have a lot of rent houses and it seems every time I put one up for rent a scammer will put it on Craig's list for lease at half the rent rates for the area. My saving grace is I have a lease sign up and the victim always calls my realtor about the half price deal! I have gone by the police station to file a report and they say since money has not changed hands there is nothing they can do. I went to the feds and they were basically worthless. They told me to stop investigating the person and that since it was only $1,500 they would not pursue it since it was not in the 6 figures. The scammer texted me the routing number and account number plus the name of the person who was supposed to receive the money ($1,500). They told me to deposit the money in a B of A account. I had the branch manager call Corporate Security at B of A and they basically said all they can do is flag the account and look into it. I was able to track the person to his home in VA. He has a rap sheet a mile long and no one seems to want to pick up this scammer. Any advice? After I left the Bank today I stopped texting the scammer which at this point she is probably fuming. I was going to deposit $15.00 in there account just to upset them. Any advice of what to do next? I really want to put a wrench in these peoples gears since the cops are not interested in helping out with this.

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 5:55 am

Unfortunately, this scammer has your real life details. It is possible they may retaliate, either by false complaints to the police, and you get a visit from your local SWAT Team, or worse.

Stop all contact.

Please go to our sister site www.scamwarners.com, and post all the details there, including any email addresses you have for the scammer. This way, anyone googling will find notification that they are scamming.

Once the details are posted there, someone may be able to get their site and listings closed.

Sorry to hear about the problems, but as you have found, it is classed as a low level crime, and getting the police interested can be a long and frustrating procedure.

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 8:54 am

Welcome to Eater!

I'm sorry that you've had such a frustrating experience with LE-part of the problem is that the scammer is probably not in your country-and LE can't do anything without an actual loss.

Irish is right- the scammer has your personal details and the safest thing for you is to cut off all contact. Block his texts and emails. Just go silent. You would be helping potential victims if you post the info at our sister site.

This type of scam is tough to bait. You end up having to give out phone numbers etc. Do't waste you money sending anything to him. If you would like to report the bank account, PM any of the folks in green and we can try and get a better response from the bank.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Mar 2016 Posts: 4

My friends said I was crazy to engage them. I probably should have gone to this site before engaging them and used false credentials myself. Since this house was recently purchased the scammer thinks the previous owner still owns the house. The tax records are public and anyone can look them up. It takes the tax people up to 3 months to update the records. The scammer even Emailed a picture of themselves which of course is not them. All metadata had been deleted from the photo and I tried doing a search on Imageraider.com and didn't find the photo listed. The husband and wife I closed with at the title company did not look anything like the persons in the photo.
I am a member of two Real Estate clubs and brought it up in one of the meetings. The largest property management company in our city said they were having the same problem and contacted LE and were told there was nothing they could do since they were not a victim of any crime. At this point the only thing to do is pull the ad's down and pray no one moves in. Because once a victim moves in you have to go to court to get them out which can take 2-3 months to get them out.

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:00 am

I know this is probably going to sound like a really stupid question, but when you say "pray no one moves in", how would that happen if you have the keys?

Also, and this may be a stupid suggestion, but would it not be possible for you to put a notice on the door of the house/apartment, saying that anyone coming to see this property
should contact you on tel xxxxxx first?

Sorry if this sounds dumb.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Mar 2016 Posts: 4

When I buy the house I always go to the neighbors and give them a business card. I let the neighbors know what is going on with the property and will notify them if a new person is moving in.
The last person who got scammed got the keys from a Realtor who thought they were doing the victim a favor. The police told the victim either leave or get charged with trespassing. One of the neighbors called me then the police. I went to the Realtors Broker and they gave money back to the victim since the Realtor violated all sorts of procedures. The property has a supra key www.supraekey.com and can only be opened by a smart phone which notifies centralized showing which Realtor showed the property and when. The Realtor that is showing the property is supposed to make all offers to the listing agent. I am notified by centralized showing through Email every time a realtor books an appointment and the agent is supposed to give me feedback for each showing. Since the Realtor gave the keys to the victim she didn't go through the listing agent and did not have a copy of a valid TREK Contract. Also if the owner is out of town the Tenant is supposed to give a cashiers check to the listing agent and we would do a remote closing. I always meet the new tenants at the house and give the Realtors a commission check once I have the cashiers check in hand.

Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 7:31 pm

Thanks for the explanation - I'm in the UK, and it sounds like things work a little bit differently here. I was interested because I'm on the other side of the fence - I'm someone who
has previously had to rent a property, so whenever I had to look for a place I tended to stick to reputable ads etc.

I'm sorry you've had such a nightmare with scammers - it must be hugely frustrating.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 19 Mar 2016 Posts: 4

The kicker was the scammer gave a document to the victim and called it Deed of ownership. The second I looked at the document I knew it was a Tax certificate from the taxing authority and is public information that is available over the internet. I purchased the house a month ago and it is still showing on the tax certificate the previous owners name.