Rental and real estate scams Published Jan. 22, 2013 By Teresa Dagdag 82nd Training Wing IA Office SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- One of our own Sheppard Team members was recently targeted in a bogus rental house scam where they had inquired about advertisement on the Internet about renting a house in Wichita Falls. The inquiry was followed by a series of emails where the scammer attempted to build a trust relationship, communicating that they were out of the area, attempting to obtain more information and ultimately getting the inquirer to send money to rent the property. The emails exchanged by this scammer were full of grammatical errors, which is one of the first signs to alert that something isn't quite right. The scam worked like this: the scammer obtained the name of the former tenants of the home through Internet research and then created a fake email address using the former tenants name to make it look legitimate. Then they set up a fake advertisement to rent the house online for below market price to lure you in. In this particular incident, the prospective renter was aware that the former tenant (home owner) was still stationed at Sheppard so the bogus emails about being out of the area raised a red flag and prevented the scam from being successful. In the end, the real estate company who was legitimately listing this home turned in a fraud report on the fake advertisement and both the home owner and inquirer were made aware that this is a common scam that ID thieves are using right now. There are several websites available to help educate us about Common Online Scams and we want you to be aware when researching for real estate online to beware that not all advertisements are legitimate. The OnGuard Online.GOV website has a series of articles on common online scams that I encourage you to take a look at: OnGuard Online.gov - Bogus Apartment Rentals: http://www.onguardonline.gov/articles/0002g-bogus-apartment-rentals If you find yourself the target of a rental scam, report it to your local law enforcement and also to the FTC at http://ftc.gov/complaint you can also file a complaint at http://www.IC3.gov/. Contact the website where the ad was posted, as well. More information related to E-Scams: Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) http://www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx Anti-Phishing Working Group: http://www.antiphishing.org/ Federal Bureau of Investigation Common Fraud Schemes: http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud consumer.gov - Scams and Identity Theft http://www.consumer.gov/section/scams-and-identity-theft Please contact the wing IA office if you have any questions.