Jun 23, 2026
Most homeowners worry about a leaky roof, rising property taxes or an emergency repair bill. But there’s another type of real estate headache that many affected homeowners never see coming: someone trying to rent out their home online.
Imagine Jason, a middle-aged homeowner who recently discovered his house listed for rent on Zillow. A friend had stumbled upon Jason’s property while house hunting online and casually asked when he'd decided to become a landlord. Jason, however, had no idea that his home was listed on Zillow.
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Curious to see how far the apparent scam went, Jason submitted an inquiry pretending to be a prospective tenant hoping to schedule a tour. Before long, the person behind the listing was asking for a "refundable application fee" to lock in an appointment.
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Jason eventually got the listing removed and reported what he could to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But the experience left him wondering whether there was anything else he could have done to protect his property — and whether the same scammer would move on to someone else.
The FTC says consumers have reported nearly 65,000 rental scams since 2020, with losses totaling about $65 million, though the agency believes the real toll is likely much higher because many victims never report being targeted.
How your home can become a scam listing
The listing used Jason’s address and photos of the property, but the contact information belonged to someone he had never heard of.
In many cases, fraudsters aren’t “choosing” a specific homeowner at all — they’re simply scraping whatever they can find online, pulling photos from old real estate listings, rental archives or even cached pages, then pairing them with addresses that look legitimate enough to pass a quick glance.
While he had his suspicions, Jason officially knew his home had been pulled into a scam when his inquiry was met with a request for a refundable application fee. Once he’d confirmed what was happening, he pulled back. Experts who deal with these cases say that’s typically the right line to draw — engaging just enough to document the fraud, then stopping before the conversation goes any further.
Jason saved screenshots of the listing and the messages, along with the usernames, email addresses and payment instructions tied to the alleged scammer. Even when no money is lost directly by the homeowner, that kind of detail can still help investigators connect repeated patterns across different complaints.
Jason also reported the incident to the FTC. Depending on the situation, homeowners often go a step further and flag it to local law enforcement or the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, particularly if there’s any sign that financial information or deposits have been involved.
The difficult part is that removing the fake listing doesn’t always feel like closure. A fake listing can disappear from one platform and reappear elsewhere under slightly different details, using the same basic playbook.
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That’s why some homeowners quietly keep tabs on their own address after an incident like this — setting alerts or checking periodically to see if anything resurfaces. It doesn’t stop someone from trying again, but it can shorten the window between when a scam goes live online and when it gets taken down.
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How to make your home a harder target
In this instance, the scammers didn’t lose anything. They didn't own the property, they didn't have to meet anyone in person and, after the listing vanished, they likely moved on to another address.
However, homeowners still have a few ways to make their homes less attractive targets.
For starters, Jason should keep his records showing ownership of the home readily accessible. If a fraudulent listing reappears, being able to provide a deed, tax bill or mortgage statement can sometimes speed up the process of removing a fake listing.
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He may also want to let nearby neighbors know what happened. In some cases, scam victims still may show up expecting to tour the premises. If neighbors are aware of the situation, they can flag anything unusual — like strangers asking questions or trying to access the home — adding an extra layer of early warning.
The person who might send the scammer an application fee could be a college graduate moving for work, a father trying to secure a place for his family before their lease runs out, or someone relocating from out of state who couldn’t easily view the property in person. In many cases, scammers lean on that pressure — pushing for application fees, deposits or rent payments upfront to “hold” a place before someone has time to think twice.
While Jason’s situation involved a property being falsely listed, data from U.S. rental fraud cases show just how common this tactic is. The FTC reports that consumers lose millions of dollars each year to fake rental listings and impersonated landlords, and rental scams consistently rank among the agency’s most frequently reported fraud categories.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center similarly tracks real estate and rental fraud as a persistent nationwide type of scam, often involving stolen images, fake listings and requests for upfront deposits before any property is ever seen.
But by monitoring his address periodically, preserving evidence and reporting suspicious activity whenever it appears, Jason can improve the odds that the next scam involving his home gets caught before someone else's money disappears into a stranger's account.
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Laura Grande is a freelance contributor with nearly 15 years of industry experience. Throughout her career she's written about and edited a range of topics, from personal finance and politics to health and pop culture.
