With it becoming harder than ever to find the perfect job, many people have decided to relocate in order to work at a job in a new area. Finding a new apartment or rental property, especially in a city where you aren't currently living, can be a challenge. One of the places that most people start is on rental property listings like Craigslist. But unfortunately, rental scams are becoming more commonplace.
Earlier this year, when I was looking for a new apartment, I ran across quite a few advertisements that were clearly scams. Some of them are easy to spot while others can fool even the most experienced of apartment hunters.
Typically, it starts with a rental listing that sounds too good to be true. A great apartment in a good neighborhood at a very affordable price. So, you contact the "landlord" to find out how to view the apartment or get started on the lease application. Once you email them, you will get a reply explaining how they are out of the country on business, but are very eager to get a renter into their property. They typically have some reason why you need to lock the deal down right away. They will suggest that you fill out an application, send them your security deposit and first month's rent via western union, and in return, they will mail you the key.
Even if you start to think that this might be a scam, the desire for the low cost rental can override our common sense. These scammers can be very convincing. They may even give you the address of the apartment so that you can take a look. When you drive by the apartment, you may find that it's not vacant, it's being rented out by another company, or you may find that the building doesn't exist at all. But, when you live far from the town you're moving to, making a visiting the apartment in person can be a challenge.
According to rentscams.org, here are some sure fire ways to spot a scammer:
- They live in Nigeria.
- They claim to be a missionary, a reverend, or a business man.
- Their spelling and/or grammar is horrible. We're not talking about a few spelling errors but writing on a first grade level.
- Their email starts off with "Dear Sir/Madam,"
- Their emails are unusually polite, but are at the same time extremely incoherent and just weird.
- They mention "God, God-fearing, God bless you" more than is appropriate for even the most devoutly religious.
- They ask you for any of these things: address, phone, bank information, social security number.
- They ask you to wire them money, for any reason.
Keep in mind, whenever you're dealing with buying things on the Internet, if it sounds too good to be true, it almost always is. Fortunately, most scammers are pretty stupid because they only have to fool one or two people to make quite a bit of money.
Are you looking for a job in the Manhattan area? Be sure to visitManhattanjobs.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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