Man Accidentally Outsmarts Scammer, Gets Applauded At Police Station

Apartment hunting can often be such a pain because, at the end of the day, you do need to actually go and look at the location. After all, signing off on a lease without seeing the place a single time is a fool’s errand. But, there are some “landlords” who are so scummy that they will still find ways to take your money even when you’ve actually showed up.

A man shared his bit of revenge, when he flipped the tables on a woman running a “deposit for fake apartment” scam. We reached out to the man who made the post via private message and will update the article when he gets back to us.

Despite the fact that basically everyone needs a place to stay, the rental market is still rife with scams, cons and other ways landlords (or just random people!) take money from regular folks. Unfortunately, this seems to be part of a growing trend. Just last year, (in the US) the FBI reported a 64% increase in this sort of fraud.

The story here is a classic variant, where the person just takes the deposit and hopes the tenant doesn’t want to deal with it. After all, who wants to literally camp outside of a home to confront her? So as long as most victims don’t raise a fuss, you can pretty easily get away with it. Of course, this is deeply illegal, so it was only a matter of time until someone actually went to the police.

Another “common” version is where the owner isn’t actually able to “show” you the listing, although they will send you pictures, which are often fake or stolen from a real listing. They will be very forthcoming and will offer to “allow you” to send the deposit (or even rent!) electronically. Once the money is wired, too bad, so sad, it’s generally gone. This is why you can never really let your guard down.

This particular scam is more common in groups renting apartments for students and so on, as the potential tenants do not have any way to actually track down the listing and see it. These are also folks who tend to need to secure their housing before they arrive at a new city or even country. If you are fortunate enough to own a home or just pay for hotels until you find something to rent, consider yourself lucky.

However, this story comes with one more possible problem. Many commenters note that the man’s details are rather excessive and self-congratulatory. The natural inclination of many readers was to declare it as fake. After all, “and then everyone clapped” is a classic hallmark of a made-up internet story.

It does seem that the scam was very real, as there are news stories about it. You can even see a picture of the scammer in the link if you are interested. That being said, this does not actually confirm the man’s story. As one comment noted, liars love to embellish their stories with all sorts of details to make them seem more believable.

On the other hand, some folks just love giving details or adding little things for “context”. Most of us love to spin a tale, particularly if there is an audience. The more cautious approach would be to wonder if perhaps some details were embellished, for example, the police officer stating just how smart this man was to get his money back or the applause he apparently received. Don’t believe everything you read online.