New Twist on a Rental Scam.

When looking for a new apartment myself on craigslist, I have seen a new twist on a rental scam.

A person posts what seems to be a great apartment, just slightly under market value. Pictures are included, with an description that doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

When you respond, they wait 2-3 days to respond, giving an excuse they were out of town, moving, etc. Normally it is a woman saying her husband does not want anyone to know the address of the apartment due to recent vandalism. They say if you do want to visit (or know the address), we need pre-approved credit check. The link appears to be some sort of affiliate link to an credit score checking service. They ask you to fill it out, and send them the report. They never ask for money, even in a baiting. This appears to be a new identity theft scam.

No legitimate landlord, property management service, etc is going to ask you for this information before even telling you the address, or even seeing this property.

Thanks for posting the information, Lester.

An early version of this scam first surfaced a couple of years ago using both job ads and rental ads, and it has appeared a few times since then.

Here is an earlier posting and summary of this scam: http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=38171

In the earlier variant of this scam, the scammers asked victims to provide only the score, not the report, which meant that the only thing the scammer had to gain was the affiliate fee. More recently, the scammers have been asking for enough sensitive information that identity theft is a definite possibility.

As Lester has stated, no legitimate landlord is going to require this information prior to giving you basic information about an apartment. Landlords who perform credit checks do so at the actual rental application stage.