Online scammers aren’t just taking over your high school friend’s Instagram account anymore— they’re posting fake listings for apartments. And sometimes, they’re impersonating real brokers on Instagram to trick you into handing over your cash.
These Instagram apartment scams usually involve someone requesting money before you can tour a suspiciously gorgeous apartment, according to 10 agents and renters familiar with online scams. (Brick Underground even spoke to a few suspected con artists on Instagram, only to have those conversations end when we didn’t fork over $100 to secure a tour.)
Usually a scammer—either through a generic Instagram account or one impersonating a legitimate broker—will request hundreds of dollars or more from a renter before they tour a unit. In more extreme cases, con artists will ask would-be-renters to pay application fees, some rent, and a security deposit before they’ve even seen the apartment.
These scammers prey on New Yorkers who are desperate to move, usually on a tight budget, said Brian Hourigan, a senior managing director at BOND New York.
“These are not small dollars to each consumer,” Hourigan said. “People are eager for a home. They might be housing insecure, and they’re being taken advantage of at a really vulnerable time.”
While these scammers have gotten more sophisticated, it is possible to recognize and avoid apartment cons on Instagram and online more broadly. Read on for six red flags to watch out for the next time you see the apartment of your dreams during your morning scroll.
[Editor’s note: Have you been the victim of a rental apartment scam on social media? Drop us a line. We respect all requests for anonymity.]
1. The listing looks too good to be true
You think you’ve found it: a beautiful New York City apartment at a cheap price, posted on Instagram of all places. But before you pack your bags, look a little closer. Does that rent make sense for NYC? (A quick reminder: The median rent for an apartment in Manhattan was $4,300 in June and $3,695 in Brooklyn, per the Elliman Report).
“If it looks too good to be true it probably is,” said Pacey Barron, an agent at Compass.
One way scammers drum up interest in a fake listing is to use gorgeous photos or videos of an apartment and post it at a below market price. So treat that $1,500-a-month, West Village apartment with extreme caution.
By using cheap apartments as bait, these scammers target New Yorkers who can’t afford to lose hundreds of dollars to a scammer, Hourigan said.
“It’s a lot of very low-priced units,” Hourigan said. “They’re targeting a financially vulnerable population already.”
2. A request for money before you can tour
Do not pay a broker before you tour an apartment—full stop.
“No broker should ever be asking you to send them money in advance of seeing anything—ever,” said Gary Malin, chief operating officer at the Corcoran Group.
Any request for money before a tour should be taken as a huge red flag. Scammers will often ask you to pay hundreds of dollars to apply or hold the apartment, in violation of New York law In fact, brokers cannot charge more than $20 for an application, and money to reserve an apartment—also known as key money—is illegal thanks to changes to state law in 2019.
3. Payment through CashApp or Zelle
Brokers who work with NYC’s large real estate firms, such as Compass, Corcoran, Keller Williams NYC, and others—always accept funds through their firm, not their personal accounts. A request for payment to a broker’s own bank account, or in cash, is a clear sign of a rental scam, Malin said.
“All checks and all monies must be given to the brokerage firm,” Malin said. “The individual agent can’t have money sent to him or her, and they can’t be using their personal Zelle accounts or their personal Venmo accounts. As soon as you hear people doing that, your antenna should go off right away.”
Typically, scammers “take money in a way that seems weird—like they’re taking it through CashApp or via Venmo,” said Sarah Saltzberg, co-founder of Bohemia Realty Group.
“We will take funds digitally,” but only through Bohemia’s website, Saltzberg said. Scammers instead will ask renters to send “$5,000 to somebody’s Venmo account—and then it’s gone.”
4. The email address doesn’t look right
One of the subtlest, but most telling, hints that a broker on Instagram could be an imposter is when they use a suspicious email address.
Let’s say you’re working with John Smith, an agent at Compass. His email should be something along the lines of [email protected], not [email protected] or JSmithCompass.aol.com; the latter two could easily be scammers.
But occasionally, a scammer may possess both a realistic email and Instagram account. For example, Josiah Hyatt, an agent at Keller Williams NYC, said scammers impersonated his entire team on Instagram, and even created a fake website. Other agents, like Saltzberg, have had their Instagram accounts duplicated by impersonators online.
Scammers who create fake websites or impersonate brokers are much harder to spot. A con artist with a fake website, for example, can use that site to create a convincing fake email address. Fictional brokers can be easily caught because their name won’t appear on the Department of State’s real estate license registry. But those impersonating real people will have a real license number.
5. You call the firm and the agent doesn’t know you
The best way to combat these more sophisticated scammers is to look up that broker’s firm and call their office. Ask to confirm the person you’ve been chatting with online is the same person you’re speaking with on the phone.
Unfortunately, a lot of renters only take that step after they’ve been swindled. Keller Williams NYC’s Hyatt, BOND New York’s Hourigan, and Bohemia’s Saltzberg all recalled New Yorkers showing up at their doors to ask for a refund, only to realize that they’d been duped.
“I remember one woman who said, ‘That’s all of my money.’” Saltzberg said. “We would get people in tears.”
6. Something just doesn’t feel right
There are lots of little hints that you might be talking to a scammer instead of a real broker. Maybe the person you’re speaking with only wants to do business over Instagram. Maybe the application they send you looks low-budget, or has some wording that doesn’t make sense.
In Brick Underground’s conversations with suspected scammers, a few red flags cropped up: including repetitive language, suspicious email addresses, requests for more than $20 for an application fee, and messages that would ask for money “ASAP” to secure an apartment.
Caption
A conversation with a suspected scammer on Instagram.
If certain behavior seems off to you, you should listen to your gut. As they say in journalism, “if your mother says she loves you, check it out.” Take that advice to the real estate world: If an Instagram account claims to have a good deal on an apartment, check it out.
