PHOENIX REAL ESTATE RENTAL SCAM ALERT
I just experienced my first Phoenix Real Estate scam on one of my rental listings this past week. I listed a rental for $975 per month. Well, I had a person call me to inform me that my rental listing was now at $675 per month. That did not seem right to her so she called me immediately. It was a person posing as the owner that lived overseas. They wanted her to send money in exchange for keys. That is a bad idea.
How many of you rent a home via email? Here is the Email from the scam artist below below:
The keys are with me here and I have no problems as far as getting it to whoever I feel is potential to rent my house. Please if you're ready to occupy the house now, kindly provide the information below accordingly for your paper work so we can go from there. You can as well reach me on my cell phone number (999-999-9999), if you have further questions. We would need first and last month’s rent sent directly to us using PayPal. Then, we will FedEx keys directly to you next day. We look forward to working with you. Sincerely Bishop Stokes.
This is happening across America. The scam is people send money to them in exchange for keys. However, they are not the real owners. I had this happened in my own neighborhood two years ago on a listing. They changed the locks on a listing that was vacant and rented it out. The people moved in like nothing was wrong. The listing agent quickly responded by calling the police and her locksmith to secure the home. However, the tenants were victims in this scam.
This is a great reason why renters need real estate representation to avoid these scams.
I just wanted to share this experience with you today.
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