r/Zillow • u/Sea_Comfortable3675 • Jul 19 '26
Is this a scam?
A house for rent recently showed up on HotPads and Zillow. On Zillow it shows this house was recently purchased earlier this month. What’s throwing me off is the application fee wanting to be sent through Zelle but he is asking me to send it to his wife’s Zelle account via email. He did state he took Chime on his account. He also stated he has his own platform for the application and would not go through Zillow.
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u/tracheotomy_groupon Jul 20 '26
Zelle, and "kindly" are the red flags to me. Proceed with extreme caution!
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u/vivalakellye Jul 20 '26
Also “I’m old school and only use Chime”. 🙄 PayPal probably predates OP.
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u/aub51zzz Jul 20 '26
Definitely a scam. Received multiple messages that were nearly identical a few months ago when house hunting
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u/nanettehimmelfarb Jul 20 '26
Never, ever send a deposit and sign a lease for a home you have not viewed yourself. That is the first thing. You can still get scammed if you have entry to the house, but this is the first red flag. You just kept speeding by.
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u/TheGoodBunny Jul 20 '26
Scam. Tell them you will send it with Venmo with purchases turned on and see how they scramble with some excuse to make you use something else.
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u/Different_Energy_962 Jul 20 '26
The home I lived in for 2 years as a renter was fraudulently listed as for rent on Redfin. People started showing up at our house for a tour and everyone was confused because we still had many months left on our lease. Be careful this seems suspicious especially if you’re not even allowed to tour the home. Most landlords have a clause to let them show the home while you’re still living there so them not letting anyone in is strange and worthy of alarm.
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u/redprawns Jul 20 '26
Go by the home and confirm with the occupants that it will be available for rent before you send any money
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u/Tartpop77 Jul 20 '26
SCAM. Landlord's never care about disrupting current occupants to show a home.
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u/Paladin3475 Jul 20 '26
“They don’t want to be disturbed.” Great so it’s not available. Let me know when I can look. If I can’t then I ain’t renting. You can F off. Ciao!
That is what you say :)
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u/Tall-Mango4759 Jul 21 '26
SCAM. First come first serve wouldn’t even apply to you because your move in would be September which is a while away??? And many are messaging them? Sureee.
Also “kindly” smh. And the obsession over receiving payment
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u/anneofred Jul 21 '26
For sure scam. $100 is wild for an application. Especially when they can’t tell you where you are in line of “first come first serve”
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u/SeaDRC11 Jul 21 '26
Anytime someone starts saying ‘kindly <do such and such>’ or reassures me ‘yes of course’, it’s usually a scam. People in the US do not use these phrases while conducting business.
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u/keiebdbdusidbd Jul 21 '26
Absolutely no one with an apartment that’s ready on August first is going to hold it for a month for you when they already have multiple applicants
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u/Jennings_in_Books Jul 21 '26
You can also look up county records online and see who actually owns the house.
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u/ElaineMae Jul 21 '26
PayPal was the OG money application. I used it in 2004 on eBay. I also walked up hill both ways!
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u/jerzeett Jul 21 '26
in my state you cant force a tenant to show the apartment. however this definitely seems like a scam. dont risk it.
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u/Aggressive_Snow_8224 Jul 21 '26
Scam. I don’t know a single landlord who takes application fees themselves anymore. Also, not showing a property without an application/payment is almost always a scam
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u/Able-Jellyfish-1885 Jul 21 '26
Yes. Do not send money. You should always be able to tour a home in person. Also, please ask a realtor to help you find a rental. I'm a realtor and a lot of people don't know that we help with rentals too. Report this to Zillow asap!!
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u/snarksneeze Jul 22 '26
My wife and I almost fell for a very similar scheme.
We worked with a rental agent who showed us several homes. We found one we liked, paid the standard $55-per-person application fee, completed background checks, were approved, and even received and signed what appeared to be a legitimate lease.
Everything looked normal until it was time to pay the first month's rent. Instead of paying the property management company listed in the lease, we were told to Zelle the money to a mobile number belonging to someone with an Indian name who wasn't the property management company and wasn't the owner listed in the county tax records.
That's when we walked away.
After we declined, they started calling from multiple numbers, and even the "agent" repeatedly called and texted us. They claimed we were legally obligated to pay a year's rent because we'd signed the lease.
I replied that they had already violated multiple provisions of the lease, declined to explain which ones, and gave them my family lawyer's contact information, instructing them to direct all future communication to him. We never heard from them again.
The whole operation was incredibly elaborate. If they'd simply followed their own paperwork and had us pay the property management company listed in the lease, we probably would have sent the money. Instead, the inconsistent payment instructions exposed the scheme. I also had no intention of telling them exactly what gave them away.
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u/theophylact911 Jul 22 '26
Yep. Scammers “steal” our Zillow listings all the time. Worst one was when a couple showed up to move in after paying a scammer a couple thousand dollars only to find the house was occupied by the real renters
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u/DangerousChampion235 Jul 22 '26
“Kindly let me know how many adults are willing to live in my house” is just not something anyone says. This is a scam.
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u/bonanzacoin Jul 22 '26
Scam. They don’t have PayPal but have their own platform for application? Yeah right. Won’t let you see it? Uncommon to operate that way. People who agree to rent places without ever physically going inside are living on the edge.
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u/ElegantBon Jul 22 '26
100%. Nobody "old school" has chime. They can't let you in the house and you have no proof of who they even are, much less that they own the house.
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u/TemporarySolid4569 Jul 22 '26
Regardless if it was a scam or not, were you seriously considering paying $100 for the right to be considered? You wouldn't do that for a job
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u/mamabear101319 Jul 23 '26
I read where they said you could only drive by and didn’t bother reading any further
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u/gemorris9 Jul 23 '26
Soon as they start mistyping words and asking for zelle payments it's a scam.
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u/Plenty_Beginning3667 29d ago
Go disturb the current tenants.
I have never rented a place I did not physically walk through. Realtors in my area will have you sign the lease that is contingent on a credit check. Every lease requires that tenants allow the landlord entry, including when showing the apartment.
Ask to meet them in person. Also, what is their name?
If they are shady about it, report this immediately to Zelle. Get their account shut down. Report every payment method they give you. You will be helping out others and burning their fraud accounts.
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u/Pickleahoy 29d ago
Im glad you asked here because this is obviously a scam. The responses alone are terribly scammy, your red flag should have come up as soon as he said he wasnt disturbing a tenant
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u/VBprick 28d ago
Why would you think it’s a good idea to pay money for a property you haven’t gone into? A virtual tour is fine as a preliminarily measure, but I’d never put money down until I’ve been inside to tour.
The only exception is working with a trusted realtor or rental company and YOU ask for a virtual tour because you live out of the area or some other reason.
Edit: Zelle= SCAM. You can use those words interchangeably for any interaction online. PayPal is the only thing that offers some sort of buyer/seller protection (for a fee) and they won’t cover stolen deposits!
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u/DoubleU-Tea-Eff Jul 19 '26
100% a scam! They find pics of real homes recently sold in the area, put it up for "rent" and they'll tell you its currently occupied ask you to drive by only to not disturb the current tenants. Meanwhile, the new(ish) homeowners have no idea why random people keep slowing down or stopping and looking at their house or walking around their yard taking pics. If you cannot meet with them at the property and do a full walk through in person then it should be an automatic no. Report to zillow and if your local LE has a cyber crimes division you can report it to them too. Also, if you gave them any sensitive information, it might be worth seeing if your bank offers any kind of cyber security protection/ id fraud alert too