My phone has been ringing off the hook the past few days. Usually that's a good thing but not in this case.

It appears the scammers have started preying on people looking to lease homes in the Dallas Fort Worth area again. Gina and I reported on a similar scam last year in a story titled, “Online Rental Scam Targets Real Estate Listings” aired on KDAF-33 in Dallas.

The scammer finds an active real estate lease listing and the name of the property owner (usually available in online public records). The scammer then builds an email address at one of the large email sites that looks like it belongs to the owner.  Next the scammer copies the real listing including all the photos and posts it at a highly reduced price on one or more of the by-owner type of websites.

In my recent case, the property is listed at $1250 and they listed it for $700 all bills paid! When a potential tenant responds to the advertisement, they get an email back explaining that the owner is overseas doing “Gods” work and to complete an application for his review.  If the tenant asks to see the property, the tenant is told that the owner took the keys on the missionary trip. The tenant is then asked to drive by and look at the outside of the home.

Once the application is submitted, the scammer tells the tenant to wire the deposit to him via Western Union and that he will make arrangements to get the lease and keys to the tenant. Of course, the lease never comes, the tenant is out the deposit, and has become a victim!

There are a number of ways to avoid becoming a victim. Many properties are listed with real estate professionals and show up on the large MLS-feed websites such as realtor.com, real estate brokerage websites, and many agent websites. You can usually work with a real estate professional and often times the agent’s fee is paid by the owner of the property.  If you decide to work with an owner directly, always try to meet in-person at a public place and never, never, never wire money to an unknown party.

The old adage comes to mind, “If it sounds to good to be true, it usually is…”

Photo: Licensed by Author from iStockPhoto