A California renter found what looked like an ideal home on Zillow. It was near her family, the price was attractive, and a professional video showed exactly what the property looked like inside.
Pam Yeager, 53, eventually sent $2,575 while trying to secure the Fullerton bungalow, according to The Cool Down.
The house was real. The person offering to rent it to her was not the owner. The video was real too, but it had been copied from an older real estate listing.
By the time Yeager asked for her money back, she had paid a $75 application fee and sent another $2,500 through Zelle as a security deposit. The person she thought was her future landlord then stopped responding.
The Zillow Listing Looked Like the Right Opportunity
Yeager was searching for another place to live when she found a two-bedroom bungalow near downtown Fullerton. The rental was priced slightly below the average for a two-bedroom home in the area and would put her closer to her son. It also appeared at the right time, as her existing lease was nearing its end.
The listing remained on Zillow for only about a day. Another prospective renter who saw it tracked down Laura Spencer, a real estate agent who had helped sell the property roughly eight months earlier. Spencer checked with the owner and learned that the home was not for rent.
Yeager did not receive that warning. After the Zillow listing disappeared, she assumed the property had attracted a large amount of interest. Later that day, she received a text asking whether she was still interested.
A Real Video Made the Fake Rental More Convincing
Yeager asked to tour the property before moving forward. The supposed landlord told her that the current occupants would not be moving out for several more weeks and that she could see the house after they left.
In the meantime, he sent her a Google Drive link containing a professional video tour. According to the Los Angeles Times, the footage had been copied from an earlier real estate agent’s tour of the property.
The Scammers Wanted Even More Money
Yeager first paid a $75 application fee. After she was told that her application had been approved, the supposed landlord asked for a security deposit equal to one month’s rent. The amount was $2,500.
Yeager hesitated over sending such a large payment without entering the house, so she arranged a phone conversation with the man. He reassured her that the deposit was refundable and said he could provide receipts. She then sent the $2,500 through Zelle over several days.
Receiving the security deposit did not end the requests. The people behind the listing next wanted Yeager to pay the first month’s rent and sign a lease. By then, only a few days had passed since she first saw the advertisement, and she still had not been allowed inside the house.
Yeager decided she had gone far enough and asked for her deposit back. The phone call abruptly ended. She spent the next several hours trying the phone numbers and email addresses associated with the supposed rental, but the people she had been communicating with stopped responding.
The Real Owner Was Still Living Inside
The homeowner had never offered the bungalow for rent and was still living there. Spencer, the real estate agent who had previously handled the property, had already learned from another prospective renter that someone was advertising the house without authorization.
When the Los Angeles Times later visited the property, the actual owner answered the door and confirmed that she still lived there and had no intention of moving out or renting the home.
A Real House, Photos or Video Do Not Prove a Rental Listing Is Real
Rental scammers do not need to invent a property from scratch. The Federal Trade Commission warns that criminals can copy photographs, descriptions and virtual tours from legitimate real estate listings, replace the real agent’s contact information and advertise a property they have no authority to rent.
Before paying an application fee, deposit or rent, search the property’s address independently. The FTC recommends looking for other listings involving the same address and checking whether they show a different owner, agent, price or rental company. For a private landlord, renters can also use city or county property or tax records to identify the actual owner and verify that the person offering the home has authority to rent it.
Zelle warns about rental scams in which prospective tenants are tricked into sending deposits or first month’s rent for properties that are unavailable or do not exist. It advises renters to slow down, ask questions and see the property before entering into a rental agreement. Anyone who has already sent money through Zelle after being deceived should contact the bank or credit union through which the payment was made as soon as possible and report the scam.
Fake rental listings should also be reported to the platform where they appeared, local law enforcement and the FTC through ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Preserve the listing, messages, email addresses, phone numbers, payment records and any documents the supposed landlord provided, because those records may help investigators trace the people and accounts behind the scam.