Fake apartment listing on Facebook or Craigslist demands a deposit before a tour
A scammer copies photos and details from a real real estate listing and reposts it at a far below-market price on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or roommate sites. They claim to be out of state and ask for first month's rent plus deposit by Zelle, Cash App, or wire before showing the unit.
Also known as: Craigslist rental scam, Facebook Marketplace apartment scam, fake landlord scam
What to do right now
- 1 Never send money for a rental you have not physically toured (or had a trusted person tour for you)
- 2 Reverse-search the listing photos on Google Images. If the same photos appear on a real estate sales listing, the rental is fake
- 3 Look up the address on the county assessor's website — does the name on the listing match the actual owner?
- 4 Legitimate landlords accept rent via check, ACH, or property-management portals, not Zelle to a personal account
- 5 Report to the FTC at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov and the FBI's IC3 at https://www.ic3.gov.
Red flags
- ⚠ Rent is well below market for the area — the obvious lure
- ⚠ The 'owner' is out of state or country and cannot show the unit in person
- ⚠ Payment demanded by Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, wire, or gift cards — never escrow
- ⚠ Pressure to send a deposit to 'hold' the unit because of high demand
- ⚠ The photos look professional and are sometimes reverse-searchable to a real for-sale listing
Rental scams are easy to fall for because the photos and details are real — they were taken from a legitimate listing somewhere else. The only thing fake is the person collecting your deposit.
Tips that work in practice: insist on touring before paying anything. Ask for the landlord’s name and look them up against the county assessor’s record for that address. Use payment methods with built-in dispute protection (credit card, check) rather than Zelle or Cash App, which are nearly impossible to reverse.
If you have already paid: call your bank and ask whether a Zelle reversal is possible (rarely successful, but worth trying within hours). Report to the FTC and IC3.