Anywhere that money changes hands, scammers will watch out for an opportunity. When there is a scarce supply, a sense of urgency makes it even easier for criminals to target you.

Estate agents are reporting increasing levels of fraudulent impersonation, specifically regarding rental properties. If you have a child or grandchild in the university-attending stage of life, your family may have brushed up against property rental scammers already!

What’s happening out there?

There is an ongoing online fraud scheme targeting clients who are in the market for rental properties in Cape Town and Stellenbosch. Scammers copy-and-paste legitimate information from estate agents’ websites: individual agents’ contact details and profile pictures, as well as the details of desirable property rental listings.

The criminals then create fake rental listings on alternative platforms like Facebook Marketplace, taking advantage of the current shortages in the local rental market.

How the scam works:

1. Fake listings: fraudsters post details of non-existent rental properties online, often at attractive prices, to lure potential tenants.
2. Impersonation of estate agents: the scammers create WhatsApp profiles using actual estate agents’ names and photos, to appear legitimate.
3. Request for upfront payments: victims are asked to pay deposits, lease fees, or credit check fees without ever viewing the property or meeting the agent.
4. Fraudulent documentation: scammers obtain official rental application forms and lease agreements through submitting fake applications for property listings. They then alter these genuine documents, changing the bank details and contact information to their own in order to defraud their victims.
5. Delayed detection: many victims only realise that they have been scammed after making a payment. When they follow up, the fraudster disappears.

Once again good-faith Facebook users are the targets of a scam scenario.

And it’s not just on Facebook Marketplace that you can get caught out.

Many legitimate Community Groups exist on Facebook – each originally set up to help real people leverage the power of community and crowd-source solutions to common problems. In this case, the need to find affordable accommodation in a constrained market.

Sadly, bad-faith individuals realised that they could hijack and abuse the trust factor in Facebook Groups.

For example, a legitimate newcomer joins a Group and posts something like,

“I’m looking for a place to rent in such-and-such suburb; these are my requirements and my budget:”

Immediately, a scammer lurking on the Group jumps in and responds with a possible property and a contact number. Or – even more cunning – scammers work in pairs, where one recommends and tags the other, to mimic the original spirit of cooperation where one Group member helps another by word of mouth.

Before you know it, you’re lured down a rabbit hole of deceit. Group moderators do their best to delete scammy posts and ban the bad apples, but they’re truly fighting a losing battle.

You might be tempted to avoid the use of Facebook for anything but basic “following of Friends”. However, social media has largely taken the place of the traditional newspaper Classified Ads these days, so it’s hard to opt out completely and still achieve the things we need to do.

We just need to be more street-smart, even when the streets we walk are digital ones 😉.

How to protect yourself:

• No matter how urgent the need to secure a rental, never pay a deposit or any fees at all before viewing a property and meeting the agent in person.
• Verify any agent’s identity by checking their details on their official company website and calling that office directly on the official number.
• Be cautious of any contact made using free email addresses (for example: @gmail.com) instead of official company website email domains (for example: @companyname.co.za).
• Check rental documentation for red flags such as spelling mistakes or inconsistencies.
• If a deal seems too good to be true – it probably IS too good to be anything but a scam.

Note once again that this scheme follows a familiar pattern…

Here are the red flags that will make you prick up your ears in future:

🚩 A desirable “product” (the ‘right’ property at a tantalising price)

🚩 A degree of urgency (because you have a time limit and there is competition for the rental)

🚩 A credible seller (due to the illusion of a real estate agent, cloned using stolen  credentials)

What do the scammers want?

Rather than anything more sinister, the endgame here is plain theft. With the rental market being both expensive and competitive, the thieves can scam people of a few hundred or even thousand rands relatively easily, taking payment for supposed credit-check fees or rental deposits that they will never deliver upon.

What to do once the scam comes to light?

If you did disclose any personal or bank details to the fraudster, call your bank hotline immediately and ask them what steps you need to take to protect yourself. Sadly, you’re unlikely to get your money back, but it’s worth asking.

Report the fraud to the SAPS and get a case number. It’s the public-spirited thing to do, because while the police remain unaware of the extent of this type of fraud, they will fail to assign and up-skill officers to handle it in the future. We need our police force to gear up!

Report the fraudulent profiles to your Facebook Group moderators and Facebook itself so that they can be banned. Making the fraudsters’ lives harder (by having to continually create new fraudulent profiles) is the least we can do for each other as law-abiding citizens.

Advise the specific estate agency so that they can alert their staff and clients if necessary.