Beware II, Annual and Vacation Rental Scams
The Florida Association of Realtors has published a follow up to rental scams. Although they focus their article more on longer term rentals I believe there needs to be caution used in regards to the seasonal rental market.
Slow for Rental Scams
The original article leads readers to believe that the scam is mostly occurring on the Gulf Coast however feedback after the original story hit “Early Bird” many Florida Real Estate professionals came forward with similar feedback. Below a few additional suggestions have been made that I think would be helpful to educate us all regarding on-going rental scams.
“Donna Fries, a Panama City Beach Realtor, says the scam operates in her area too. She says the fraudulent ad uses the real owner’s name or the Realtor’s name, but a contact method that goes only to the criminals.
She offers the following suggestions for detecting the scam:
• The Craigslist ad is a carbon copy of the original ad with correct spelling, good English and a photo. Follow-up email responses, however, usually have incorrect spelling and awkward English.
• Scammers offer rental prices up to 40 percent below actual value, making it an attractive deal. If potential renters see identical ads in different locations with different prices, the lower-priced one is probably a scam.
• Criminals ask for deposit and rent money to be sent by Western Union or another method that works like cash, and it usually can’t be tracked or refunded.
• Many times, they use a foreign phone calling card that cannot be traced.”
I want to help. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call or email me. Have a great day and remember….if your rental seems too good to be true, proceed with extreme caution.
Tags: Anna Maria Island Vacation Rentals, education, headlines, Information, news
I am planning a trip to Panama City next week and I found this rental offer on craigslist. It is a really good deal and the lady has responded to my emails, I’m just uneasy about it. It seems legit I just don’t know for sure. I pay through pay pal and i pay half the rental fee and a deposit fee up front then i pay the other half of the rental fee when I get there. She told me the address is 8700 front beach rd panama city beach. Do you think this is a legit rental offer? I would really appreciate the help…
Thanks,
Kimberly
I am sorry for the delayed reply. For some reason my email did not tell me of the comment. So, there are a couple things you can do. #1 of course is go to Google street view and take a look at the home. See what you think, does it correlate to what the person is telling you. The second thing to do is go to the property appraiser tax website for the county. Here you can type in either the address or the owners last name and confirm that the name on the property is one in the same as the person you are calling. #3) If everything is good so far then I would attempt to google the person’s name and get an alternative phone number for the person OR if you have enough time the property appraiser will tell you the mailing address of the home owner even if they are an absentee owner. Send a letter to the address asking for a call back on a different telephone number. So if you typically use your mobile phone number for all your vacation rental calls then put your home number in the mail. If all else fails SKIP the Craigslist ad and find an ad with a local property management company with a website, better business bureau records, etc… much safer. Larry