San Francisco’s competitive rental landscape is facing a new challenge: social media scammers who are hijacking legitimate apartment listings and turning them into viral traps for eager renters.
These fraudsters are taking authentic apartment tour videos from Bay Area realtors and reposting them on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. The catch? They advertise these properties at unbelievably low prices, as reported by SFGate.
One notable instance involved a TikTok account called “Budget Friendly Homes” (also known as for_rent_sanfrancisco), which amassed nearly 12,000 followers by showcasing sleek tours of trendy Alamo Square units, promoting one-bedroom apartments for as low as $1,800 per month. This account has since been removed.
Scammers not only used videos from real estate agents’ social media but sometimes even impersonated the agents by mimicking their names, using their photos, and even replicating their license information.
By the time victims suspect foul play, the scammers have already requested deposits or application fees before offering a viewing, only to disappear afterward.
“Scammers tend to emerge when the market is booming — rents are rising, inventory is limited, and demand is high,” local real estate agent Dave Chesnosky shared with SFGate.
Agents told the outlet that the problem has exploded alongside the rise of social media as a marketing tool. A Bay Area agent for Sotheby’s International Realty, Marsha Abrahams, has even been forced to confront the fraud on her own social media page, warning clients that she isn’t the one offering luxury lofts for pennies on the dollar.
“The accounts using the handles @for_rent_sanfrancisco and @marsha_abrahams are not affiliated with me in any way,” she posted on her Instagram. “I do not advertise rental listings or request deposits through TikTok, WhatsApp, or text message.”
An agent with Compass Realty, Nick Abraham, has also had his identity used fraudulently, and he only learned of it after a stranger messaged him asking if he received a deposit–after the victim, a hopeful tenant, contacted “him” via TikTok. Except Abraham didn’t use TikTok.
“I looked it up and they had taken my actual picture, my actual department of real estate license number and were impersonating me,” Abraham told SFGate. The bandits even set up a sham email account with his name misspelled.
Experts say the rule for renting remains the same, regardless of where you’re based: if you haven’t stepped foot inside the front door, keep your wallet in your pocket.
“I tell people, it’s really easy to figure out if they’re a scam,” Chesnosky said. “Just say you want to see the unit in person. That’s all you’ve gotta do.”
