Fake Credit Report?! Tenant Screening in Houston, TX

[Isaiah Matsumura]

I have a SFR for rent and realized that an applicant's Credit Report was completely fraudulent! The applicant's realtor sent over a TransUnion credit report that looked fine to the eye... but when I hit ctrl+A, I saw there were text rows highlighted but completely blank. I copied and pasted into a fresh .ppt doc and guess what I found? Yep, a different name, addresses, negative accounts, and a different Credit Score!

It looks like the "hidden" text had the font color changed to white (to match the background) and new textboxes were added with the fake info.  

 My realtor has flagged this to HAR and I'm writing this to hopefully help other landlords.  I'm obviously not goin to entertain the application but what do I do?  Have others run into this before?  Is this common?

[Lionel Lin]

Always get the screening results directly yourself.  I use mysmartmove and zillow, that way there's no chance for them to manipulate the credit report.  They can still fake paystubs and bank statements.  You can call and verify employment.