Dealing with scammers

[Barbara Wilson-Scranton]

Good morning everyone! So I am wondering, how often everyone has a scammer to deal with? 

Here's my story..... its been fun. My husband and I just finished getting one of our rentals turned so we can put it on the market. My daughter took amazing photos and blurred the address on the front of the house. And I made a Facebook post. The response has been amazing. But I got a notification about a comment on the post in the market place. It is a scammer. They left a phone number to call for immediate move in and claimed to be the landlord. I commented that they were frauds and please don't fall for it. Then..... me being who I am, decided to text the phone number and talk to them as if I am an interested renter. It is a Google number that someone is using on a computer. Has this happened to anyone else on here? How did you deal with it?

Anyway messing with the scammer has been fun, but it has also gotten me very concerned. My husband told me about a scam that people are doing, like pulling public information, forging quit claim deeds, filing them with the county, taking out loans against the property, and the true owner is none the wiser about the events that have transpired. What do you do to protect against this?

[Scott M.]

When you advertise your home you must watermark your photos.  We watermark them with our company name/phone/url to apply/url for more info etc.....That said, nothing will stop a scammer but watermarking your photos will likely have them move on to an easier target.  

You can report it, it may or may not work but on Facebook/Craigslist this is very common and a lot of us (including me) have had this happen in the past.  

Keep an eye on your home if you are in the area, drive by daily to make sure a family doesn't show up.  Hard to get rid of a family that was scammed.  Not impossible but takes time and resources.  

That last part is far more rare then the general scam, the general scam is to get first month rent or SD and move on.