“Beware of rental scams in DC”

“Dear PoPville,

I wanted to flag for our community’s attention that with the summer season coming up, there are scary sophisticated scammers to look out for. I almost fell victim to one. My partner and I have been looking for rowhouses in DC and came across a beautiful one in the Adams Morgan neighborhood on Seaton Street NW. The pictures were real (corroborated by Zillow), the utilities were included, and the price was just right to convince us this was a great opportunity to jump on.

A “property manager” whose identity was based on a real DMV-area property agent we found online responded promptly and asked us some surface-level questions to “vet” us. The biggest red flag was when they told us that we could not see the property until the tenant moved out at the end of April, but to reserve the place, we needed to put in first and last month’s deposit. They even sent us a real lease contract. Before moving forward, we called the agent that we found from a Google search, who confirmed her identity was stolen. What blew us away was the sophistication of the operation: a legitimate gmail address with the stolen agent’s name, grammatically correct emails, a real and legally sound lease contract, and a real address. I sincerely hope no one ever falls victim to these scams–especially because of how fast-paced and competitive the DC real estate market can get.”