Rent Scams Hitting Northern Virginia

In Northern Virginia, The Washington Post reports:

• [I]n the past 18 months, the foreclosure debacle has pushed tens of thousands of area residents into the rental market, many with crippled credit and a desperate need for housing. Waiting for them is a new cast of swindlers, cheats and real estate sharks ready to prey on the weak and needy. Scams of various stripes are thriving in the foreclosure mess and flourishing at the margins of landlord-tenant laws.

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• Collecting money on a property you no longer own or signing a long-term lease on a property headed for foreclosure could lead to felony charges of obtaining money under false pretenses, authorities said.

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• In recent months, [Kristi] Cahoon, [an attorney with Northern Virginia Legal Services] said her office has been swamped with so many calls about rip-offs and scams, "they don't even faze me anymore." Police in the region do not specifically track fraud or theft cases that stem from rental housing, so the trend is difficult to chart.

For more, see Foreclosure Epidemic Infecting Rental Market (Tenants, Lenders Are Exposed to Various Scams). ThetaTenantRentSkimming