SF officials hold 1st hearing on rental scams, say citywide coordination needed to help victims

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco city officials held their first-ever public hearing on rental fraud.

It came after 7 On Your Side Investigates exposed several recent cases of landlord impersonation scams -- and the problem is growing.

The Federal Trade Commission says consumers reported nearly 65,000 rental scams with losses totalling 65 million dollars over the past five years.

People between the ages of 18 to 29 were three times more likely than other adults to report losing money.

RELATED: SF man scammed out of $18,600 after fake Craigslist rental listing mimics real property owner

The city reports rents have risen 22% since June last year, with vacancy sitting at 3%.

To put it in perspective, prospective renters outnumber available listings by roughly 10-to-1, and scammers are exploiting that. Like what we saw with Alvin Tran who was desperate to find a new place to live after being priced out of his building.

Supervisor Danny Sauter, along with the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector, the San Francisco police department, the district attorney's office, and the rental board all came together to examine how scammers are exploiting the city's housing crisis.

Matt McCarthy is the Chief of the White Collar Crime Division with the San Francisco DA's office. He explains these rental scams are perpetrated by sophisticated fraud networks often based overseas, that are particularly skilled, hard to track and hard to remove.

"Many of these things are taken down. Sometimes they're left up for quite some time. We don't have legal authority to order it to be taken down. So it really does require that certain platform to agree and delist it," McCarthy said.

RELATED: Fake landlord scams Bay Area family out of $4,500 after remotely granting entry to the house

The city showed what some of these fake listings look like.

Officials launched the initiative "Stop Scams SF" earlier this year to offer victims things like financial counseling, real-time scam alerts, and step by step recovery guidance.

City officials agree there needs to be citywide coordination between departments so victims get the help they need, fast. They'll be monitoring scams over social media, and using real time 311 data.

The San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney's office noted that these rental scam cases have been challenging to investigate and prosecute. A big reason is because they use burner phones, fake identities, and sometimes stolen identities -- even bank accounts used can be emptied and abandoned within minutes of the scam.

Take a look at more stories and videos by 7 On Your Side.

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