Most rental scams do not start with a stranger inventing a home. They start with a real one. A scammer copies your listing, your photos and your description, swaps in their own phone number or email, and posts it somewhere else at a price that is a little too good. The renter who falls for it loses money. You lose a prospect, get an angry phone call, and sometimes find a stranger at the door of a vacant unit. Your website is the one place where you control the facts, which makes it the best tool you have for helping renters tell the real listing from the copy.
How big the problem is
In a December 2025 Data Spotlight, the Federal Trade Commission reported that people filed nearly 65,000 rental scam reports between January 2020 and June 2025, with about 65 million dollars in losses and a median reported loss of 1,000 dollars. The FTC is careful to call that a fraction of the real harm, since most scams are never reported to a government agency. The research it cites found only 4.8 percent of people who experienced mass-market consumer fraud complained to a Better Business Bureau or a government body.
The FBI sees the same trend from a different angle. Its Internet Crime Complaint Center counts rental and timeshare fraud inside its real estate category, and the 2025 IC3 annual report recorded 12,368 real estate fraud complaints and 275.1 million dollars in losses, up from 9,359 complaints and about 173 million dollars in 2024. That category also includes investment fraud, so it is not a rental-only number, but the direction is clear.
Three numbers worth knowing
~65,000
Rental scam reports filed with the FTC from January 2020 through June 2025, totaling about 65 million dollars in losses
$1,000
Median reported loss per rental scam over the same period
3x
How much more likely adults aged 18 to 29 were than other adults to report losing money to a rental scam (July 2024 to June 2025)
Source: Federal Trade Commission, Data Spotlight, "Rental scams hit home with $65 million in reported losses," December 2025.
Where scams start, and why that matters to you
According to the FTC, about half of people who reported a rental scam in the 12 months ending June 2025 said it started with a fake ad on Facebook, and another 16 percent said it started on Craigslist. Young renters are hit hardest. People aged 18 to 29 made up 46 percent of the loss reports in that period, and many said they were targeted in Facebook groups students use to find sublets near campus.
Notice what that means for a property manager. The scam rarely happens on your website or on the major listing portals you syndicate to. It happens one step away, on a platform where anyone can post and a renter has no easy way to check who is behind the ad. The renter's best defense is a quick search of the address, which is exactly the advice the FTC gives. When that search lands on your site, the page they find either settles the question or leaves them guessing.
Renters are already worried. In a 2024 Rently survey of 500 U.S. renters (run through Pollfish and limited to people who had experienced or were aware of rental scams, so not a general sample), 93 percent said scams are common, 90 percent worried about falling for one, and 92 percent said landlords and property management companies should adopt better technology to prevent fraudulent listings. That is a group actively looking for signs that a company is real.
The four tactics, and the website answer to each
The FTC describes a handful of repeat patterns. Each one exploits a gap in information that your website can close.
| Scam tactic | What the renter sees | What your website can do |
|---|---|---|
| Copied listing with new contact details | Your photos and description, a lower rent, and a phone number or email that is not yours | Show every available unit with its real rent and your only official phone, email and domain, so an address search finds the true version |
| Money up front to "hold" the home | Pressure to send a deposit, application fee or first month's rent before seeing the place | Publish how and when you collect money, which payment methods you accept, and which you never use |
| "Send me your credit score" | A link to a 1 dollar credit check that can enroll them in a recurring membership | State that screening happens only through your application on your domain, and that you never ask renters to pull their own report |
| Fake self-guided tour | A lockbox code from someone who will not meet in person, copied from a real self-tour listing | Explain that tours are booked only through your site, and post a scam warning with your contact details inside vacant units |
That last row comes straight from the FTC's findings: reports show that scam warnings posted inside homes tipped some renters off before they paid. A laminated sign costs almost nothing. Pair it with a short URL to your verification page and it does double duty.
Build a "how to verify us" page
The single most useful addition is a short page, linked from your footer and every listing, that tells renters exactly how to confirm a listing is yours. It should list your official phone numbers, your email domain, your office address, where you advertise, how tours are booked, how applications are submitted, and how payments are collected. Then it should say the opposite plainly: we never ask for money before a tour or a signed application, we never ask you to pay by gift card or wire, and we never ask you to send your own credit report.
Keep the tone calm. The goal is to make checking easy, not to scare people off renting from you. Add a simple way to report a suspicious listing (a form or a dedicated email address), and tell renters where else to report it, including ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the "report listing" option on the site where they saw the ad. Every report you receive is also an early warning that one of your listings is being copied, which lets you flag it with the platform quickly.
This also connects to the rest of your leasing setup. If your application and tour booking live on a vendor subdomain or a third-party page with no branding, renters have a harder time recognizing what is real. Keeping those steps visibly tied to your own domain and brand makes the legitimate path easy to spot.
Seven steps to protect renters from fake listings
Keep every available unit on your own site
Your website should be the complete, current list of what you have for rent, with the same rent you advertise elsewhere. If a renter searches an address and finds nothing on your site, they cannot rule out a scam.
Publish one set of official contact details
List your real phone numbers, your email domain and your office address in the same place on every page. Avoid personal Gmail or unbranded numbers in listings, because that trains renters to trust contact details that look like a scammer's.
Add a "how to verify us" page
Explain where you advertise, how tours are booked, how applications are submitted and how money is collected, then state what you never do. Link it from the footer, every listing and your Google Business Profile.
Say how and when you take money
Name the payment methods you accept and the point in the process when you collect them. A renter who knows you only take payments through your portal after approval has an easy reason to walk away from someone asking for a wire today.
Keep tours and applications on your domain
Book tours and take applications through pages that carry your brand and live on your website address. If you use self-guided tours, say so on the listing and explain how the access code is issued.
Make reporting easy
Add a short form or email address for suspicious listings, and link to ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Search your own addresses on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist on a regular schedule, and flag copies with the platform as soon as you find them.
Put a warning inside vacant units
Post a sign with your official contact details and verification page URL in every vacant home, especially ones with lockboxes or smart locks. The FTC found these warnings have helped renters spot scams before paying.
The bottom line
You cannot stop someone from copying your listing onto Facebook or Craigslist, and reported losses show the problem is not going away. What you can control is what a renter finds when they check. A website that lists every available unit, shows one set of official contact details, explains exactly how tours, applications and payments work, and makes reporting easy turns an address search into a quick answer. That protects renters, protects your reputation, and keeps real prospects moving toward the real listing.
