Tips to avoid apartment rental scams in Massachusetts (GBH)
You’re out of state for the summer, and see a listing on Facebook Marketplace for a $1,200 studio in Beacon Hill. Lovely photos, the broker is friendly, and it seems like a great deal. You don’t want to miss out, so you send over the funds on PayPal. Then the “agent” disappears, and you’re not sure when you can move in. I hate to break it to you, but you’ve been scammed.
It’s August, when many leases have already been signed ahead of Boston’s Sept. 1 move-in rush. But there are many people still looking for apartments, and with competition high and housing stock low, scammers are hoping that desperation will work in their favor.
“It is kind of a prime time now for this scam to be perpetrated on people. So it wouldn’t be uncommon to see potentially a rise, during this time,” said Steve Kelleher, assistant special agent in charge of the white collar crimes branch at the FBI field office in Boston.
He explained that some scammers make up apartments using photos from the internet, and other fraudsters “hijack” legitimate real estate postings by copying the material and simply replacing the contact.
