How tenants get fake references

With the onset of internet access, our society is being inundated with services to fix any problem.  Take a poor work history, if you are trying to land a job and need to beef up your resume due to a firing or a gap in work history, you can contact one of several companies that will help you create a fictional work history.  For a fee, they will create a website for your fictional prior employer.  They will set up an internet phone number, staff the number with a person trained to answer questions about you and your so called history with that fake company, and make your reference follow-up just like any other employer.

You can also use this process to deceive potential landlords.  These companies will set up a fictional property manager website and a fictional phone number via the internet for any area code you desire. They will work with you to develop a detailed history and then rehearse it with you so that there are little to no flaws in both stories.  When a landlord calls the reference number given, they are greeted by a worker who has a complete packet of information regarding your former tenancy with them.

At Compass Property Management Group, we take numerous steps to weed out the liars and problem tenants.  We base a lot of our emphasis on applicant credit histories.  We also check social media where you can often find employment information and determine if the prospect has pets.  For landlord reference checks, we review property tax records for owner information to verify if the submitted information is correct.  When contacting the reference, we ask multiple questions designed to verify the reference such as:  when the potential tenant’s prior home was purchased and for how much, what other homes does the owner own in the area, what is the average rental price in the area, how many beds and baths in the potential tenant’s prior home.  These types of questions will stump relatives posing as prior landlords.

Professional reference companies rarely conduct such in depth research.  Some of them do, but an added safety measure is carefully checking credit histories to create a higher level of protection.  It is impossible to weed out all problem tenants but taking the above steps will significantly reduce the risks.