How to spot rental scammers as DC AG reports uptick in complaints

When Andrew Barillas began his search for an apartment in D.C. this year, he said he knew to look out for potential scams. He just didn’t think one would happen to him.

The recent college graduate began looking for an apartment online while still living in Southern California, creating a post on Facebook Marketplace advertising what he needed.

Quickly, he heard from a prospective landlord looking for a tenant for her apartment in Northeast D.C. He said he was familiar with the building from a prior trip to D.C., but because he wasn’t able to see it in person, he was encouraged when the landlord sent a video walking him through its alleged interiors.

“It looked like a perfect fit. It had everything that I needed,” Barillas said.

But before proceeding, the landlord said, she wanted a reference. And Barillas, in an effort to do his due diligence, too, said he researched her name – allegedly Victoria White -- and found it matched with social media profiles. Next, the landlord sent him a rental agreement from an attorney, whose name and bar information was included.

“I made sure that the lawyer was legit. I searched their name up, and it came back to a real law firm,” he said.

Thinking he did everything right, Barillas signed a lease and wired around $2,000 to secure the apartment, only for the landlord to ignore his messages when he flew out to D.C. A day later, the person sent a message saying there was a problem with the apartment and it wasn’t yet ready.

“At that point, I was like, I feel like I am getting scammed right now,” he said.

Barillas said once in the District, he checked out the building in person and realized that, while the address was correct, the apartment number that he thought was his didn’t exist. He called the attorney on his rental agreement.

“And they said, ‘Oh, sweetie, this is a scam,’” he said.

His experience is part of what the D.C. Office of Attorney General has described as an uptick in rental fraud complaints this year. The issue is a perennial problem, but Emily Barth, assistant attorney general with the Office of Consumer Protection, said her office saw a surge of complaints over the summer of scams targeting college students, short-term renters and people moving to the District from out of the area.

“We’ve been seeing consumer losses anywhere from $500 for an application fee to upwards of $1,000 to $5,000 for security deposit fraud,” she said.

According to the FBI, consumers lost nearly $397 million last year in real estate related fraud, a crime the bureau indicates exploded during the pandemic. According to the FBI’s 2022 Internet Crime Report, the bureau received more than 11,700 complaints, though it doesn’t specify how many were due to rental fraud versus other types of real estate-related crimes.

Barth said rental schemes can take different forms.

In some, scammers steal photos from real listings and advertise them with their contact information. Some use phantom rentals which use photos of a property that is not located at the advertised address. And they may also steal the name of a real person or company -- such as a real estate agent, property management company or attorney -- to make the scam seem legit.

In Barillas’ case, the landlord may have been a fake, but the attorney she claimed to use isn’t. Miriam Davidson, who practices law in New York, told the I-Team she has no idea how her name got caught up in this scheme.

She said she and her legal assistant have fielded more than a dozen calls from victims of someone or people using the name “Victoria White” since 2019.

“I had numerous people crying on the phone because they handed over money,” said Ericka Pombo, Davidson’s legal assistant.

“Once the money is gone, it is just gone, because most of the scammers ask for the money to be sent in a non-refundable way,” Barth said, such as by wiring money or using cash apps like Zelle.

Their office advises people pay with personal check or credit card to provide some measure of protection, should something go awry.

Barillas said, in hindsight, he was the ideal candidate to be scammed, since he was unable to see the apartment in person before moving to the area. Thankfully, he eventually found a place to rent and said there's no substitute for picking up the phone and meeting face-to-face first.

“What helped me out this time was being able to see the place in person, knowing that the people I’m meeting are real,” he said.

Tips for avoiding rental scams online:

1. Don’t send money without seeing the property first, whether in person, through a friend or by asking the landlord to walk you through the unit via FaceTime or Skype.
2. Google the address of the unit to see if a different person’s name is associated with the address. If applicable, call the property management company associated with the address and ask to speak with a supervisor to confirm whether the unit is for rent. Also check online to see if that address is connected to reports of fraud.
3. In D.C., search to see if the landlord is licensed to do business in the District. You can search for their name on the D.C. Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection’s SCOUT database.
4. Pay application fees or security deposits with personal check or credit card, which give greater protection than paying through wire or cash apps. Of note, security deposits by law cannot cost more than one month’s rent in D.C. by law.

This story was reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Katie Leslie, shot by Jeff Piper and edited by Steve Jones.