The #1 rental scam to watch out for in NYC is this one: A lister, pretending to be a tenant, landlord, or agent, posts a FAKE listing claiming to represent the apartment. After many back and forth emails full of lies and misrepresentations (unbeknown to you), the lister tries to get you to pay money to take the apartment off the market.
Unfortunately this works more than you may think. Why? The NYC market is very difficult for renters. Apartments can sometimes get rented within hours.
So, after losing many apartments, renters can get desperate. Desperation leads to renters sometimes agreeing to pay some money to take the apartment off the market, out of the hands of other renters.
Scammers, understanding this desperation, take advantage of renters. Of course, as soon as the deposit is wired to them, the “lister” disappears, never to be heard of again, and the renter is out the money AND the apartment.
For those interested, here is a very quick Tiktok we made about this and here is a more in depth article on our website explaining ways to avoid scams.
Also, since Leasebreak is at the forefront of trying to prevent scams on its website, we are often quoted in articles about scams. Here is a great article by Brick Under Ground where we are quoted throughout.
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