Are you aware of these scams?

Question

Hundreds of websites allow people to create fake paystubs, tax returns, W-2, bank account statements, and more. Go to your favorite search engine and look for "fake pay stub" and you'll see what I mean. There's no law against creating a fake document, but it is illegal to use the fake document.

Have you seen anyone using these in your market? Were you even aware of them? How do you stop them?

Drew Sygit · Answer

@Nathan Gesner we saw a sharp increase in fraudulent applications during COVID.

INCOME: fake paystubs & W-2s---We've always required a bank statement, so we could corss-reference income as most employers now diret deposit. ---You can also use Google Streetview to virtually check out the employment location.

LANDLORD: friends posing as landlord, fake receipts, fake rental verifications---Professional PMC: we Google for their number. If we can't find phone for apartment complex we use Google Streetview as most have phone on a building sign.---Private Landlord: we check public records to determine legal owner. Then when we call landlord on application, we can usually trip up fake landlord. ---We also got a Whitepages account, so we can lookup owner names from public records to get their phone. We also reverse lookup phone numbers from applications to see who they really are.

Takes alot of extra time and nothing is foolproof. But, we do catch a lot.

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

We are living in an age of scams.....it's a full time job just being vigilant to all the crap going on....

Alan F. · Answer

I am now, thanks Nathan. FWIW there's locations here in CA where you can (in person) get fake DL, SS card, I9 cert, smog cert etc. For a small fee. Generally they set up in a parking lot with a card table, there's almost always a line, pretty lucrative cash biz.

Ryan Bakerian · Answer

Agreed. I feel like I spend a lot of time just weeding through bad tenant apps and fake docs.

Mark F. · Answer

I'm aware of those scams and I verify all employment by looking up the employer and calling or visiting them (last one would be for an extreme case, calling and internet sluething is good enough). I don't use the number provided. I also call the previous landlord by looking up the old address and trying to independently verify as much as possible before calling them. I do social media checks too. I self manage so realistically it only applies to us DIY landlords. No issues yet. But we also screen people in general, using the "good vibes" check. Using familytreenow.com to verify idemtiies and past addresses is a good idea.

Steve Vaughan · Answer

Hopefully the aspiring $6M 'virtual landlord' Hodges that hopes to not have to meet new tenants reads this.

First thing I thought of was you know digital docs can be faked, right?

Chris Webb · Answer

I do think I saw one a few years ago. I was out of state and my property manager had a paystub but couldn't find the website. The tenants first check bounced. When I found the LLC on the pay stub, I saw it was the applicant and the website listed was 'for sale' on Godaddy. Luckily, my agent still had keys and we were able to get his boxes out of the house. We then changed the locks and found a new tenant.

Rachel Jones · Answer

I have had tons of fake applicants through Zillow. A few things that have weeded them out without much effort- Duplicate employer and landlord names with different phone numbers and addresses. After they complete the application on Zillow and they meet the requirements, I send my own copy of an application with a deadline. Most do not respond at that point or they only respond through Zillow and not email.

Ryan Bakerian · Answer

I heard about these but never had one yet. I suppose you could call the employer directly to verify? If you can't get anyone its probably a good guess its fake.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

It's a shame we have to jump through so many hoops. For every security measure developed, there's a scammer that can beat it.

Are you aware of these scams?

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