Scammers are placing online classified ads for residential and holiday rentals. As a Private Landlord did you know that scammers may be targeting your prospective tenants? To get the attention of renters the scammers are quoting extremely low prices.Well that doesn't affect me as a private landlord directly does it?Actually it does in a number of ways:-* If you are doing rental price research for properties similar to yours before letting a property you need to ensure you have valid price data. If you include prices from scammers you may set your own price too low.* If you are using the classified ads for your property and your property price is dramatically undercut by a scammer your prospective tenants may ignore your ads.* Your prospective tenant may be attracted to the scammer's ad, they end up losing money and you lose a potential good tenant. Naturally most renters will try to get the best deal they can.So how do you tell if scammers are at work in your area?"Scammers will quote extremely low prices to gain the attention of your potential renters."So if you see rental prices much lower than you expect you can check them out. It's likely you will receive a lengthy email detailing why you cannot inspect their advertised property in person, typically because the owner is out of the country.Often scammers use a fake copy of a genuine property advertisement to fool the renters. The scammers may try to gain the trust of renters with false but convincing copies of lease and ID documents.The scammers may come up with elaborate stories, perhaps claiming that they are carrying out some sort of humanitarian work overseas for a charity.They will try to trick the renter into giving them an upfront fee as they are after your renters' cash.In many cases the scammer's correspondence may be poorly written and may ask for personal information, sometimes disguised as a rental application.So what can you do about it?* Use your own ads to alert potential renters to property scammers and then counter the scammers by making it very clear your property is available for inspection.* Protect your potential renters by advising them they should always insist on a physical inspection of the property - a drive-by is not enough. A scammer may well use the address of a real property but one they don't own.* Tell your renters not to part with any cash before they have done a physical inspection even for a rental application fee.Scammers will take whatever they can get. Scammers often use the same scam in multiple places and multiple countries simultaneously.November 2010, The Australia Competition and Consumer Commission's "SCAMwatch" have issued the following alert for renters:-"Looking for rental properties online? Watch out for scams!" To view the full alert online visit http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/810504Of course scammers don't just target renters, some scammers will target you as a Private Landlord so make sure you follow the proven processes of successful Property Investors for selecting and screening tenants.
