How to avoid renter/housing scamsĪvoid housing scams when you’re a renter, buyer, or owner: Homeowners struggling with mortgage payments may receive phony foreclosure relief offers from scammers offering to help – for a small upfront fee. Similarly, homebuyers who are approaching the closing date of their new home may receive a phishing email asking them to wire money for closing costs.

The goal is to get you to pay a fee or sign a lease before seeing a property that is not as nice as advertised or that may not exist at all. Rental scams target potential renters with fake ads or fake responses to real ads. Look up the official business or government department online and call the listed number to verify the validity of the original call. In general, never share personal information until you can verify that the caller is legitimate.

Listen to the voicemail (if they leave one), and do your due diligence before calling back. Instead, don’t pick up calls from unknown numbers. While memorizing the area codes of common scam phone numbers used to be a viable move, 1 scammers can now make any number appear on your caller ID. Clicking those links may take you to a website encouraging you to enter sensitive information to continue.

Scammers also send texts with suspicious links. Similarly, scammers may pose as a business or charity offering freebies or requesting donations. During the call, they’ll use their invented position of power to intimidate you into sending money or handing over personal information, like your Social Security or credit card number. What does a phone scam look like? A phone scammer may pose as a bank representative, debt collector, government official, police officer, or other authority figure. Many other types of scams on this list involve calls from scam phone numbers. Phone scams have been around for a while, but they continue to happen at high rates.

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