Every applicant seems like a scam

[Jeffrey Duck]

Hi folks - I'm new to Bigger Pockets and to landlording. As I was getting started, I found a lot of great information here and hope it will be a good place to help me get started.

I recently inherited a triplex with 3/2 units. It was mostly trashed and I'm just about done renovating it. I have one unit ready to rent, and one more will be ready in a few days.

Due to my health and 'extended family' tenants, it took about a year to get started then about four months of construction. In the meantime, the postal carrier became my best friend by referring everyone to me who was in the neighborhood searching for a rental. 

The problem that I'm having is that EVERY prospective tenant so far has been a scam. My first one was a multi-state felon fake 'brain cancer' scammer. The second was a Realtor/tenant with real money but a fake ID and background. The third was a lawyer/CPA who is getting screwed by her current landlord and "just doesn't know what to do about it", etc. There's more background to these people's stories but I've verified them to all be scams.

Now I've stopped taking neighborhood referrals and setup an account on Rentalutions. Two listings went live on Zillow last night but haven't propagated to other sites yet. Today I've gotten 5 contacts from prospects. EVERY one of them either spell their name three different ways, can't even come close to filling out an application, and/or has some other background that's a problem. There's at least 2 red flags with every one of them.

I'm very good at Internet searching and within a few minutes I found criminal records, fake property ownership, old evictions, etc. with all of them. I'm starting to think that I'm paranoid and over searching things. I'm in South Florida which is a pretty scammy market (and I was ready for that) but it's getting ridiculous. I was honestly thinking that I got on some list and am getting my name sold as a scam prospect but now that I have a public listing, things haven't changed so that idea is out.

I'm wondering if there's something someone can identify that I might be doing wrong? Will this wash out over time? After a year, I'm ready to rent and start getting some income but not having even ONE reasonably honest (and even unqualified) prospect makes me wonder if I'm doing something completely wrong.