All landlords have had problems with troublesome tenants, but there is a breed of tenant out there that preys on unsuspecting and good willed landlords. We’re talking about tenants who are really scam artists who know more details about the law than most landlords do. Being informed will help you from being taken in.

There are as many scams as there are scammers. One popular scam in recent years is when you take on a tenant, then he ‘rents’ it out to a bunch of other victims by taking their deposits and first and last month’s rent–pretending to be the landlord–and then skipping town. An even more outrageous elaboration on that scam is that the new ‘renter’ is in on the scam. Some landlords will be desperate to not have the apartment empty and so will offer them a legitimate lease, only to find another deadbeat who has to be evicted.

Sometimes the scammers are not evil as such, but have bad credit or a history of bad relationships with their former landlords. For instance, sometimes one person will rent a property for a group of others because the other occupants won’t pass the screening. That’s why it’s important to find out up front exactly who will be occupying the property

How to find or identify a scammer

• Ask a lot of questions when they call you on the phone. Ask them where they live, where they work, how much they can afford, how many kids they have. The dishonest ones will nervously start making up stories to keep up the front.
• Beware of people who are antagonistic about getting a background check. They’ll say they just moved to this country or make up some other story.  What they may have is a criminal background.
• The Internet is your friend. Google your property’s address and see if anything suspicious comes up. You should also check out Craigslist.org, because that place has been inundated with scam artists renting properties that are not theirs.
• Watch out for identity theft. Drivers licenses and passports are the best forms of identification, but counterfeiters are getting better and better at creating bogus ones. Ask for two pieces of identification, one of which should have a photograph. Make sure all pieces of identification match.

Finally, familiarize yourself with your legal responsibilities as a landlord, and live up to them. One type of scam occurs with renters who know the letter of the law to the ‘T’. They pay their deposit and first month’s rent, but as soon as they move in, they comb over the place for every infraction and immediately stop paying rent until the problem is fixed. Then they find another problem, then another. You get the picture.

Many scammers can be filtered out by established screening processes, but you have to do your part. Make sure the application is filled out fully and that all the information is consistent.