Posted on 11/08/2025 3:50:21 AM PST by Libloather
Fake rental applications are proliferating across the country as the U.S. rental market has become increasingly unaffordable and competitive.
Greystar, the country’s largest apartment landlord, told FOX Business that it has seen a clear increase in fraudulent applications nationwide.
"Fraud in rental applications has become increasingly sophisticated across the industry, with some of the most advanced cases involving AI-generated documents and fabricated payroll systems," Greystar said.
Eric Taylor, lead for trust and safety at TurboTenant, a free online property management platform, is also seeing an uptick, telling FOX Business that nearly 75% of apartment owners across the nation reported a sharp rise in falsified applications last year, which is up about 40% on average.
"As rental prices rise, and affordable housing remains scarce, scammers are getting more sophisticated. They’ve actually begun using doctored pay stubs, fake employment letters and even AI-generated credit profiles to qualify for luxury apartments they can't afford," Taylor said.
However, Greystar noticed that the activity is prevalent in certain areas of Atlanta, including Midtown, Downtown, and Buckhead, which is an area known for high-end shopping, dining and luxury living. In some of those neighborhoods, the company discovered that around half of applications were flagged as fraudulent.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
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Let me see your health insurance card please.
You seem to be making 102% of FPL.
Can I see your credit card please.
Can I see your bank statements please?
Gens Zed and Alpha are all about situational ethics (though they probably wouldn’t know the term).
Years ago in Atlanta, it was posted that there were going to be 300 Section 8 houses available and a date to apply and it was a near riot.
30,000 showed up.
A friend of mine has rental homes, some for $2500 and up. She gets calls from people demanding she accept their $700 Section 8, that she is required by law to rent to Sec 8. She tells them, “no problem, where is the other $1800 coming from.”
That, along with the notification of credit and criminal checks stops most of them.
Amazing.
Colleges are plagued with “ghost” students who sign up just to take the financial aid and run
Banks (some as co- conspirators) were plagued a few years ago with faked applications just to take the loan/ mortgage money and run.
Banks (some co- conspirators) were plagued by faked appraisals to inflate loan fundings, then run.
And now this- fake rental applications…
It seems there’s less and less integrity, honesty in USA? It’s no longer just government, politicians, and “big corporations” that are running scams????
The Democratization of Dishonesty
I always looked at prices for those places and thought “Are there really that many people who can afford those?” Turns out there’s not.
You can’t run away with the apartment you’ve just moved into based on false (shall we say, “aspirational”?) statements about your finances to the landlord.
Is the idea to move in, immediately stop paying rent, and refuse to move out, expecting eviction not to take place for say, half a year or more?
Add in no apparent thought toward any eternal accountability, and no care for one’s fellow man — he’s just a chump, an easy mark to exploit for personal gain.
This world is all they’ve got going for them.
We’ve got a vast army of domestic enemies who are both foreign and domestic, seeded in and now running all of the establishments that enabled and rewarded their bad deeds.
The trouble is, they are thoroughly mixed in with lawful people.
There’s a farming parable for it, so it’ll get sorted out.
Mamdani would probably want her in jail.
Yes
A society can’t last with such widespread corruption
That’s the most logical conclusion that I come up with also. However in spite of all that the people have to come up with first, last, and a deposit which could easily start at $5,000. That’s cash, you can’t fake that with AI.
Although I guess if you put up $5,000 and it takes them 6 months to a year to get you out of there then you are ahead of the game so to speak
“Is the idea to move in, immediately stop paying rent, and refuse to move out, expecting eviction not to take place for say, half a year or more?”
That and subletting the rooms.
“However in spite of all that the people have to come up with first, last, and a deposit which could easily start at $5,000”
In CA the landlord is restricted from asking for more than 1 month’s rent, plus a “reasonable” deposit.
It’ll be everywhere soon, along with strident rent control.
Yes, that’s real cash on the barrelhead.
As another commenter alluded to, the people coupling that kind of cash up front with a clear intent to deceive on the application paperwork must be doing it over and over again, subletting to others with relatively cheap rent while stiffing all of the owners.
Thus the lack of incentive to be a landlord, resulting in fewer rental properties and higher rents. It's rocket science to the lebs.
Ours will not.
As long as you can pay the rent, who cares. If they can not, they will be thrown out. Seems like a made up problem.
Yes
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