City Rant: I'm baaack
- Zoe
- Sep 14, 2022
- 3 min read
For those of you that know me, you know that occasionally I get stuck on some city rant. Or life rant. I would be sorry, but you know what? I'm not. Because some things are just plain unacceptable! I realize the world can be a shit place and some of you will tell me to accept that already, and for the most part I do, but every once in a while I just.can't.let.it.go. This is one of those times. Another one is the bus lane rant for Cambridge, buuut you'll read about that one another time. It dovetails into a pre-rant I'm gearing up for regarding the city's "preparation" for electric cars. Can't wait. I'll be picking up steam for the electric car situation until it hits in 5? 10 years? You should subscribe now for that future post alone. I challenge the city to right the ship now before I get around to calling it out.
Today's rant is about the total inanity that advertising for and securing housing rentals in the city has become. I ask you, what good is a housing marketplace if 90+% of the posts are scams? Doesn't it render itself useless if it's mostly trash (*ahem*craigslist*)? Why hasn't more been done to shut this crap down? It's not like the scams are new. People have been scamming each other for forever, then they took it online, and everyday the scams are more and more advanced. I see the days fading into the distance where you could identify a scammer by their poor spelling and grammar. Dang, part of me is going to miss "When time are your free to show to me a rooms." So easy to spot. So what's one of the most prevalent scams now? Credit checks. That's right. Something that makes total sense when trying to secure an apartment as a tenant and that is standard across the industry from landlords. Cool cool. Nice, people, nice. May a special circle of burning hell be reserved for you.
How does it work? You e-mail the lister, they seem normal, you have a semi-standard exchange about identities, employment, and criminal background (I'll admit that I found most of them abrupt and a little too direct/aggressive), and then the scammer asks for your e-mail so that they can send you a link to do a credit check. Before you've seen the apartment. Red flag #1. You open the e-mail and the link is through a subdomain like "imjessica.epizy.com" (That's a real example, by the way. Also, fuck you, "Jessica".) Red flag #2. It directs you to a legitimate-looking site that if you hadn't been paying attention could work. It has names like Experian on it where presumably you enter your information and give away the farm. Or at least a really nice cow. Past news articles on this type of housing scam cite consequences to the consumer of identity theft and recurring credit monitoring fees.
Why am I mad if this has been going on for years? Well, one, because it shouldn't be. Where is the humanity?! You're telling me you can't find any other way to make money?!
Two, because it's been going on for years and still is...
...and three, because it's so prevalent. I contacted eleven listings, at least five were scammers, and they were all playing this credit check game. Thankfully, I didn't fall for it, but what about those that do?? The elderly or the desperate or the tech scam ignorant (from which, I'm honestly not far off). Shame on the "Jessicas" of the world. And shame on the tech giants and consumer protection bureaus that have done nothing to right this toxic environment for at least 8 years...Can we not do better, oh sweet, ephemeral world?
For those that aren't sure or don't know, here are some general rules of thumb (*Disclaimer: I don't claim to be an expert on the topic but these are the things I do know. Please do your own research and be careful out there!):
1) Landlords ask for credit checks after you see the place and almost always as part of a formal rental application
2) Meet the landlord, property manager, or other tenants advertising the place and see the property before giving away any personal information
3) Always check URLs for discrepancies in the name (red flag!)
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