Fictitious Landlords Profit from Abandoned and Vacant Homes

As the foreclosure rate rises in American cities, con-artists are cashing in on empty homes that line urban streets. Today, it is not uncommon to walk down any residential street, in an urban city, and find numerous houses, once homes to families, vacant and abandoned. These homes not only serve as eye sores for the community, siding peeling off with broken windows and graffiti tagged across the front door, but as havens for drug abuse, prostitution and other illicit activities.

Now they have a new purpose... fraud. Recently individuals have been breaking into abandoned homes, changing the locks, and then listing the property for rent in area newspapers. As responses pour in from interested tenants, the "landlords," usually posing under a fake name, follow through with the normal chain of events that go along with renting a house. Tenants are given a tour of the property, asked to fill out leasing applications and agreements, a deposit and first month's rent is paid out to the "landlord," keys are given, utilities are then placed in the new tenants name, and then shortly thereafter the police arrive with the real owners. Tenants who have become victims of this scam are then put out on the street, losing the money that they had given to these fictitious "landlords."

Scams like these are becoming a harsh reality for individuals and families across the country. At a time when the economy is down and things are already rough, it is difficult to believe that someone would knowingly take a person's money to only put them out on the street.

Rather than be surprised about the lack of moral character demonstrated by these crooks, stories like these should serve as wake-up calls for would-be renters. While nothing is fool-proof, there are several precautionary steps that can be taken in order to prevent a scam like this from happening to you.