Introduction

Scammers are looking for means to cheat the victims and making them believe that they are genuine. The worst part is that these individuals who fall a trap to the scammers are unsuspecting. There is a huge sum of money involved in real estate deals and hence it becomes essential to be well-equipped with the way the scammers operate.

In some cases you may not have the guidance of the real estate agent and the scammers will take advantage of this. Now let’s look at some essential things to be considered so that you don’t yield to these scams.

• Now we will see some of the easy frauds. Scammers repost the legitimate apartment ads by giving their address and telephone number. The means they seek here is internet. When the person who wants the buy the property communicates with the poster the latter gives lame excuses. Then how does he get the money? This he does so by making the potential buyer giving him a sum to reserve the space. Then the con artist runs away with the money.
• The great surge of foreclosures paved way to several vacant properties that are targeted by these scammers. The scammer just breaks the lock of the building, and masks himself in such a way that he is the professional. He displays the property to potential renters. The worst part is that when the unsuspecting tenant moves in he will realize later only that building is not under the ownership of the scammer.
• Legitimate realty agents or investors don’t promote their business in a way that violates the law. When you realize that the marketing strategies are free then it is not up to the mark.
• When you are having rental transactions with foreign buyers you should possess a backup. Money laundering is prevalent in such cases.
• Generally the buyers would never disclose sensitive details and this is more so in case of financial information. So when some buyer is telling even the minutest detail then you should be very careful.
• In case of security deposit the tenant should not opt for cash payment. This is also the same in the case of the first month’s rent. It is should be noted that legitimate landlords ask for only the regular checks.
• The tenant should get a copy of a written lease from the landlord. This should surely have the signature of the landlord.
• The tenant should not go for renting without even seeing the space that he is going to live. The tenant should make it clear to the landlord that he wants to see the space.
• It is prudent that the tenant gets to see the landlord in person. In this way he will get to know more about the landlord.
• There are several scam artists who will get all the seller’s details in the open house. Then this becomes a reason for them to con the seller by posing as a real estate agent.