America's booming new real estate scam could drive up the cost of your next home

"It was the fall of 2023, and the caller was an aggrieved local businessman in Tampa, Florida, who had just discovered thousands of dollars missing from his bank account. The property management firm Decker works for, the caller said, had charged him nearly $10,000 for rent over several months - despite the fact that he had never lived at any of its more than 600 rental homes."

"Decker and the owners of his company soon discovered the source of the mix-up. A fraudster had rented the home under a false persona, stealing the businessman's bank account information and cribbing other identifying info, including his name, from a different person in Pennsylvania. The scammer had begun living at the property before Decker's company, Coastal Pioneer Realty, took over managing it, so he hadn't gone through their usual screening process, Decker tells me."

"Landlords and property managers nationwide are sounding the alarm over a surge in leasing application fraud, as scammers fabricate documents or steal entire identities to secure rentals. An executive at Greystar, the country's largest multifamily property management company, tells me that about half of applicants in some pockets of Atlanta are rejected due to "provable" fraud. During an earnings call in 2023, the CEO of Camden Property Trust, another large apartment company, recounted his own brush with identity theft:"

An aggrieved Tampa businessman discovered thousands missing from his bank account after a fraudster rented a home using stolen bank details and a false persona. The scammer copied identifying information, including a name from another person in Pennsylvania, and had already been living at the property before Coastal Pioneer Realty began managing it. The resulting eviction and court proceedings produced legal fees, missed rent payments, and most losses borne by a small-scale "mom and pop" landlord. Property managers nationwide report rising leasing application fraud, with major firms rejecting many applicants for "provable" fraud and executives recounting attempted identity-based leases.

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