SCAM ALERT! Check if your Property Specs have been stolen

[Alvin Sylvain]

I've just run into two separate occurrences where the description and photos of my SFH for rent have been stolen and put somewhere else at a ridiculously discounted rent.

The first one was on Redfin.com, and it was the house across the street. Or the address was, anyway. The photos, the description, etc., was all taken from our property. At half our rent.

I telephoned Redfin yesterday and left a rather irate message. I probably should have been nicer, but what-the-hey, it was fixed by today. They deserve credit for taking swift action to rectify their listing.

The second one was brought to our attention by somebody who found "our house" on Facebook. What the hell is Facebook doing advertising rental property in the first place? I thought Facebook was just a place to go to trash people you didn't like.

Anyhow, that ad was a complete fabrication, included a lot of our pictures, inflated the size of the house, and cut the rent. It even included pictures of the "owners", my goodness, what a wholesome looking family. Probably lifted from a stock-photos company. Unfortunately, the one thing that wasn't fabricated was our address.

Clearly these villains are attempting to use our hard work and diligence to scam potential renters into divulging all their personal info so they can engage in identity theft. It's not a big deal for the landlord, except for when people drop by unannounced, no appointment, and get all bent out of shape when they find out it's only half the house for twice the rent.

But a scam is a scam, and it needs to be stopped somehow. Or slowed down anyway.

Now you might wonder how you can ferret out these scammers. The only suggestion I can think of, other than random browsing the different websites (and Facebook), is to use Google Image Search with one of your property images. There should be a number of hits, and most of them should be legit. But if you find one that is NOT legit, it's time to take action.

[Matt Devincenzo]

This is fairly common and has been happening for years. The listing platforms have gotten better about it as they have implemented some ownership verification questions, but it's hard to police an open submittal platform. By far the best ways I've heard to combat this is water mark all photos with your contact info, rent amount (potentially) and potentially the address as well. It keeps anyone else from being able to upload them without potential victims calling you which gives you an opportunity to intervene.