Scammers Are Cloning Real Rental Listings on TikTok and Charging Fake Application Fees

A South Jersey realtor is warning renters about a scheme that takes real rental listings, photos and video included, and reposts them on TikTok at deeply discounted prices. The goal is to collect application fees, deposits, and rent payments from people who never get the apartment, because the poster does not have it to rent.

Tom Dati of Keller Williams Realty in Ocean City found one of his own listings cloned. "He actually took my listing with the same pictures, all my intellectual property, and he built a listing for my apartment," Dati said.

How the cloned listings worked

Dati learned about it when a prospective tenant noticed his Somers Point rental on both TikTok and legitimate listing sites, at two very different prices. "He offered it for rent at half the price I was actually listing to rent for," Dati said.

The account, operating as RentwBob, advertised properties across New Jersey, including in Margate City, Bradley Beach, and Cherry Hill. A review of the listings against other records turned up several that appeared fraudulent, among them a Cherry Hill property belonging to agent Maya Felsenstein.

"I mean, when you called and told me, I knew the possibility was always there, but I had no idea," Felsenstein said. She said clones work because so many people are hunting for affordable housing, and that the tactic has migrated from Craigslist to social platforms. "It kind of became that scam central. I think TikTok's relatively newer. So I think they're just getting a bit more savvy," she said.

The tells: no showing, pay by app, fake credentials

Dati contacted the poster while posing as a renter, and the exchange followed a familiar script. The person dodged every attempt to see the unit in person.

"He avoided the 'when can we see it' question and finally got to the point where you either 'Venmo or Cash App me a $100 for an application, then we can talk about seeing it,'" Dati said.

When Dati asked for a real estate license, the answer gave the fraud away to anyone in the industry. "He sent me a photo ID from the New Jersey Real Estate Commission. Real Estate Commission doesn't license us; the Division of Banking and Insurance licenses us," Dati said.

Why the price is the first clue

The bait in nearly every one of these schemes is a rent far below the local market, which is exactly what a renter can check in a minute. In Cherry Hill, RentDataNow tracks a typical rent of about $2,320 a month. A furnished listing there advertised at half that, near $1,160, is not a bargain, it is a clear warning abouta potential scam. Looking up the typical rent for the city or ZIP code on RentDataNow before responding is the cheapest fraud check available, and it costs nothing.

The rest of the pattern is consistent with what we cover in our guide on how to spot a rental scam: pressure to pay before viewing, payment demanded through Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, wire, or gift cards, and a landlord who is always unavailable for an in-person showing. Legitimate application fees are typically paid to a broker or management company through traceable means, not to an individual's payment-app handle.

Enforcement is a game of whack-a-mole

Dati filed a police report and contacted TikTok to get the listings pulled. "They took no action," he said. In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said real estate scams are widespread across the internet and social media, and that the company removed 99% of videos violating its fraud and scam policies in the first quarter of the year before they were reported.

Dati said takedowns rarely stick. "There's nothing we can do because no matter what happens, like his IP address changes. He'll change his name, he'll just start cloning it under a different name," he said. The RentwBob handle has since been removed, but reporters found another account posting similar listings.

How to protect yourself

• Check the going rate first. Compare any listing against typical rents for that city or ZIP code on RentDataNow, and treat a price far below market as a red flag rather than a find.

• Never send money before seeing the unit in person. Refusal to schedule a showing is the single clearest tell.

• Do not pay application fees or deposits by Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, wire, or gift card. Those payments are effectively unrecoverable.

• Verify the agent's license with your state's actual licensing body, not whatever agency name the poster claims.

• Search the listing photos and address. If the same images appear elsewhere at a different price or under another agent, the cheaper post is the fake.

• Prefer reputable listing sites, and contact the brokerage directly through its own published number.

Sources

• 6abc / WPVI, "South Jersey realtor warns of TikTok rental scam using cloned property listings"

• RentDataNow New Jersey rent data (Zillow Observed Rent Index)