{"id":3275,"date":"2026-06-26T08:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3275"},"modified":"2026-06-26T08:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:34:08","slug":"nc-triangle-renters-targeted-by-new-wave-of-scams-heres-how-to-protect-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=3275","title":{"rendered":"NC Triangle renters targeted by new wave of scams. Here\u2019s how to protect yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

If that rent looks too good to be true, it probably is.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the warnings the North Carolina attorney general and the North Carolina Real Estate Commission are sharing with consumers amid a new wave of scams targeting renters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPublic reporting seems to indicate that these scams seem to be increasing, which led to our office\u2019s alert<\/a>,\u201d Bailey Aldridge, press secretary for the North Carolina attorney general, said in an email to The News & Observer.<\/p>\n

Scammers are impersonating landlords or property owners, creating fake listings and stealing money from people looking to rent an apartment or house.<\/p>\n

This scam may be increasing, but it isn\u2019t necessarily new, said Frank DeRonja, president of the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors<\/a> and a broker\/owner of Raleigh-based Corcoran DeRonja Real Estate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first remember this from over 10 years ago on Craigslist, having listings of mine that were cloned and posted for rent,\u201d DeRonja told The N&O in a phone interview. \u201cSo this is a long-term scam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doorify MLS<\/a>, the Triangle\u2019s multiple listing service, started using a tool called Property Shield around late April to identify and remove fake property listings from platforms including Facebook, TikTok and Craigslist, said Matt Fowler, CEO of Doorify MLS.<\/p>\n

In just a couple of months, nearly 550 listings, most of them apartments, have been taken down. Doorify MLS hasn\u2019t measured this data before, Fowler said, so he can\u2019t say for sure whether these rental scams are becoming more common.<\/p>\n

But \u201cthis is a persistent threat,\u201d Fowler said.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the scams work.<\/p>\n

Fraudsters post information about and photos of real properties online, but they don\u2019t actually own or manage them. Then, to attract renters, they list properties at low prices.<\/p>\n

Instead of meeting prospective renters in person, scammers only communicate using text, email or messaging apps. And they give believable excuses as to why they\u2019re unable to schedule a face-to-face. They might say they\u2019re out of town or traveling for work.<\/p>\n

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Scammers make themselves seem more credible by sending lease documents that look legitimate or providing the correct access code that allows renters to tour properties. The latter is more common for properties leased by companies that have their own apps for visiting properties in person, DeRonja said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the rental companies will allow you to view a home by just downloading an app and scanning a picture of your license, so it\u2019s pretty simple for a scammer to, you know, trick that and then provide the unsuspecting person their code to access the property,\u201d DeRonja said.<\/p>\n

The fraudsters\u2019 goal is to get consumers to send money, so they tell renters that they need to quickly send a deposit and a month\u2019s rent because there\u2019s a lot of interest in the property.<\/p>\n

This fraud has been happening for years, but artificial intelligence is making it more sophisticated and believable, DeRonja said.<\/p>\n

For example, Realtors may add watermarks to photos of their listings or place signs in a home\u2019s windows that say the property is for sale, not for rent.<\/p>\n

AI makes it much easier for fraudsters to remove those from images.<\/p>\n

The attorney general and North Carolina Real Estate Commission<\/a> suggest several ways renters can avoid this scam:<\/p>\n

Renters who see a scam can report it to the North Carolina Department of Justice Consumer Protection Division by calling 1-877-NO-SCAM or filing a complaint online at ncdoj.gov\/complaint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A new wave of scams aimed at defrauding renters is affecting the Triangle. Here\u2019s how the scams work and what renters should do to protect themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nNC Triangle renters targeted by new wave of scams. 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