BBB Study Reveals Rental Fraud Among Home and Vacation Property Listings

An in-depth investigative study by the Better Business Bureau (BBB; www.bbb.org) found that fraud is widespread in the online rental home and vacation rental market, with 43% of online shoppers encountering a fake listing and more than five million consumers losing money to such scams.

The investigative study, Is That Rental Listing Real? A BBB Study of Rental Scams Involving Apartments, Houses and Vacation Properties, released by the BBB in December noted that 85% of those encountering fake rental listings do not fall for them. However, these figures suggest that the volume of rental scams lurking on the internet is staggering.

According to the study, rental scams can take several forms, but perhaps most commonly, fraudsters simply copy the photo and description of a property, post it online with their own contact information, and try to get a deposit and first month’s rent from the victim. The fraudster may communicate only by email or text message and may claim to be out of the country and unavailable to show the property. Once the victim sends money, the fraudster disappears.

To read the Better Business Bureau’s full study on rental scams, go to bbb.org/scamstudies.