Rental housing scams continue to burn residents in Steamboat Springs

Rental housing scams in mountain towns including Steamboat Springs continue to turn up like a bad penny, and despite growing consumer awareness, some hopeful renters are still getting caught up in the scams.

The key advice to avoid scams is skepticism, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Traci Dowd.

“Independently verify,” Dowd advised this week.

One common housing rental scam comes from legitimate listings found on websites such as AirBnB that are fraudulently copied onto Craiglist or a local established Facebook group by a likely overseas scammer who changes the phone number, law enforcement officials say.

Steamboat resident Rafael Domingos, who works in the water department at Steamboat Springs, was taken in by such a scam and lost $1,000 this week following a Zelle transfer from his bank account to the scammer’s account. Domingos now is communicating with his bank, but he does not know if he will get the money back.

Domingos currently lives in a small studio unit in Steamboat but needs to find a larger place so that his wife and two children can move from Florida to join him. He said he only communicated with the scammer through email and text. He then showed up at the rental address to find out he had been scammed.

Tom Williams is a longtime Steamboat resident and landlord of the downtown short-term rental that has been targeted by scammers three times since 2020, including when Domingos showed up thinking he had arrived at his new rental.

“I feel sick because I know they have been scammed,” Williams said.

Williams once again worked to contact Craigslist and to “flag” the listing, and he talked with a Steamboat police investigator.

“If you recognize the warning signs that this is a fraud or scan, the first step is to stop communicating with that person,” advised Patty Oakland, a civilian criminal investigator with the Steamboat Springs Police Department. “If you have a concern for safety or a monetary loss, then reach out to the police.”

Then report the scam to the organization where the notice is posted, Oakland said.

New Jersey resident Jason Laitner, 28, who is moving to Steamboat for a new job this fall, said he was almost caught up in the same rental scam. With the help of his real estate agent mom, he was cautious and proceeded slowly until he could determine it was a scam.

Laitner said it raised a red flag when he spoke with a man with poor English skills who said he was the property manager. The incoming bartender eventually found housing through a well-known property management company in Steamboat. Laitner spoke with the management representative on a Facetime video call and asked for a live video tour of his housing unit.

Agent Dowd said housing scammers are particularly active targeting tourist and college towns where many new people are looking for housing on a seasonal or annual basis. Scammers try to take advantage of people desperate for housing.

Dowd advised that “bad guys will go on Facetime too” but probably will not use video calling to provide a live tour of a property. If potential renters are skeptical, Dowd suggests asking to speak with the actual property owner instead of just someone representing themselves as a middleman property manager.

Law enforcement officials say the scams are common, and the scammers often are located overseas. So, law enforcement has little recourse.

Dowd suggests that rental owners or landlords proactively set up a free Google alert using several key words from their own housing ad so they will be sent an email notification if that housing wording appears elsewhere on the Internet. That way owners receive quicker notice and can work to try to have the fraudulent rental notice removed before someone is caught up in a scam.

Law enforcement officials say red flags to identify a potential scammer include misspellings, improper English, vague or no answers to questions, not agreeing to meet in person, not sounding truly familiar with the local area and pushing a sense of urgency. Scammers also ask for payments via less secure or untraceable means such as gift cards, cashier’s checks, money orders, temporary prepaid cash cards, PayPal or cash-transfer applications such as Venmo or Zelle.

“For all scams, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” Oakland said.

Domingos said he feels sad and cheated by the housing scammer who asked him to send money to “hold his spot.” He will continue his housing search for his family, but this time he plans to speak directly with the owner, meet the landlord in person at the rental property and ask for a key.