At the place I moved into, they apparently had to constantly remove signs scammers had put in the yard.
What sort of signs?
Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
101–110 of 153 posts
Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#102It's pretty amazing that modern browsers don't flag .com. as a scam. Is there any legitimate use for addresses like this? It's also amazing that email software doesn't highlight fake link texts. There should be a rule that if the text looks like a URL then the actual URL has to match it exactly.
I was under the impression that in quite a few countries they are quite widely used. E.g. .com.au in Australia.
Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#103From the screenshot, the scam is actually pretty easy to spot if you know what to look for. Here's some clues: 1. All accomodations are available (w/d in unit, pets ok, wheelchair accessible, furnished!) - eliminating listings with all of these checked will nearly eliminate the scam listings. 2. The description doesn't include any information about who's the renter. Usually the landlord or property manager will menti…
Zillow also has lot of such scams, when I reported them unfortunately Zillow did nothing! Anyhow, the single most significant indicator of all rental scam is that the perpetuator is not going to show you the apartment in person.
They have rental scams here where they will show you the house as well. One is where they pretend to be realtors and get the key from the listing agent.
Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I saw a 1 bedroom for $4,700 in the Peninsula recently, which explains why that complex has so many 1BR available.
And somehow, that's still the profitable option and not actually filling the apartment.
Probably because waiting for the property value to increase over a year or two and then deducting paying the loan rate/interest over the time is more profitable.
Classic perverse incentive, the only way to fix this is a drastic vacancy tax.
Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#105Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
> $4.5k will get you a 1 BR in the Bay Area Average one-bedroom rent in San Francisco is $3,520, and two bedrooms is $4,550. It's much cheaper elsewhere in the Bay Area. In Oakland, average one-bedroom rent is $2,470, and two bedrooms is $3,050. $4,300 is very plausible in Oakland. Source: https://www.zumper.com/blog/2020/02/zumper-national-rent-rep...
That is really mind blowing to me. I just looked at the local rental website for my small town and the first 2 bedroom duplex I looked at had a nice yard and looked good on the inside and was only $900/month. That is in Canadian dollars too I may add. That $4550 would be about $6000 Canadian and you would have people begging you to move in if you agreed to pay them a portion of that.The highest rental I see on the si…
SF is just another world to me, whenever I read about salaries or rent, it might as well be on Mars. We just bought our first home(3 bed, double drive, large garden) in a large UK city and the mortgage is £580/month(~$750 for you Americans). And it's not like we're poorly paid either, we both drive brand new cars, go on holidays twice a year etc etc. And then you get SF residents being paid well into 6 figures and unable to have a decent standard of living. It's just crazy to me.
Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#107I'm assuming there is a Stripe/other payment form behind the button, and not a login form for phishing. This seems like a lot of work for just phishing. It would seem amenable to actually taking payments because people are booking months in advance, giving you months of no complaints or chargebacks or fraud reports so the criminals can cash out.
Maybe it “fails” and then they ask for WU or something non-repudiable. As you get more committed, the more of a length you’ll go to get the place?
WU or just a bank transfer to a drop account. They definitely aren't after card info with a scheme requiring this much interaction.
Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
And somehow, that's still the profitable option and not actually filling the apartment.
Probably because waiting for the property value to increase over a year or two and then deducting paying the loan rate/interest over the time is more profitable. Classic perverse incentive, the only way to fix this is a drastic vacancy tax.
> then deducting paying the loan rate/interest over the time is more profitable.
What does this have to do with not renting the apartment? Any business will deduct interest payments as a business expense.
Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
> $4.5k will get you a 1 BR in the Bay Area Average one-bedroom rent in San Francisco is $3,520, and two bedrooms is $4,550. It's much cheaper elsewhere in the Bay Area. In Oakland, average one-bedroom rent is $2,470, and two bedrooms is $3,050. $4,300 is very plausible in Oakland. Source: https://www.zumper.com/blog/2020/02/zumper-national-rent-rep...
That is really mind blowing to me. I just looked at the local rental website for my small town and the first 2 bedroom duplex I looked at had a nice yard and looked good on the inside and was only $900/month. That is in Canadian dollars too I may add. That $4550 would be about $6000 Canadian and you would have people begging you to move in if you agreed to pay them a portion of that.The highest rental I see on the si…
What's the city and what website did you use? I didn't find many such options when was looking over (though not that thoroughly).
Re: Anatomy of a Rental Phishing Scam
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is really mind blowing to me. I just looked at the local rental website for my small town and the first 2 bedroom duplex I looked at had a nice yard and looked good on the inside and was only $900/month. That is in Canadian dollars too I may add. That $4550 would be about $6000 Canadian and you would have people begging you to move in if you agreed to pay them a portion of that.The highest rental I see on the si…
SF is just another world to me, whenever I read about salaries or rent, it might as well be on Mars. We just bought our first home(3 bed, double drive, large garden) in a large UK city and the mortgage is £580/month(~$750 for you Americans). And it's not like we're poorly paid either, we both drive brand new cars, go on holidays twice a year etc etc. And then you get SF residents being paid well into 6 figures and un…
>And then you get SF residents being paid well into 6 figures and unable to have a decent standard of living. It's just crazy to me.
To be more accurate, it is only a subset of SF residents (in the IT space) that get that kind of pay, I often wonder how is the life of those that do not belong to that elite and that do not make that kind of 6 figures money.