New Technology Developed to Stop Rental Fraud, Craigslist Scams, and Curtail Rental Foreclosures

June 25, 2012 - PRLog -- DepositShield launched a new online service that enables renters and tenants with the ability to verify a property’s legal owner and foreclosure status within 30 seconds. The DepositShield Report (DSR) service also searches for any liens and back taxes to provide a complete picture of a rental property’s financial status beyond mortgage status.

DepositShield developed their new service to combat the alarming trend of Craigslist property scams and rental fraud where homeowners rent out their property knowing it will go into foreclosure. Since the foreclosure meltdown of early 2005 to late 2006, the hardest hit communities are seeing rental scams result in the loss of valuable income and an increase in identity theft. As a result, unsuspecting renters and low income families are the most vulnerable to what DepositShield Co-founder, John Dawes, describes as "house hijacking."

According to Corelogic’s June shadow inventory report, 2.8 million homes are currently in severe delinquency, foreclosure or REO. The report also estimates that 1.5 million of these homes are being held off the market. Dawes points out that, “Scam artists are finding abandoned homes in this shadow inventory and using them to lure multiple renters into signing a false lease agreement, then leave town with tenants’ first- and last-month’s rent, and security deposits…all in cash. Another side effect of rental fraud is identity theft, in which scam artists can obtain their victims’ social security number and credit references from fake lease agreements.”

In February 2012 the WSJ Market Watch reported that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke revealed there were four times the number of homes in the foreclosure process than are currently foreclosed, suggesting that the shadow inventory will increase as long as home prices stay soft and short-sales outpace traditional housing inventory. Dawes said that, “This will aggravate rental fraud and tenant evictions caused by foreclosure, as well as put low income evictees in danger of becoming homeless.”
DepositShield’s Report (DSR) helps renters avoid fraud and having to deal with the lost time and costs associated with having to move again by first showing within seconds who the current legal owner of a property is and secondly by revealing if a property is in pre-foreclosure (notice of trustee’s sale or lis pendens) or foreclosed.

Often described as, “a CARFAX for rental homes” by its users, the more common uses of DespositShield’s property search include checking rental properties in the form of single-detached homes, condominiums, lofts, vacation homes, time-shares and corporate housing.

DepositShield is used by consumers that are unsure of the status of a property they want to rent or already reside in, families and college students relocating to a new area, military families returning from abroad establishing a new residence, and travelers renting vacation homes in the U.S.

Real estate industry professionals also see the benefits of using DepositShield as a value-added service to their existing services. Property managers encourage potential tenants to run a DSR to verify their properties’ ownership and foreclosure status and real estate agents use it as a way to perform due diligence on rental property transactions and to give their clients piece-of-mind before moving in.

To learn more about DepositShield’s report service visit: http://www.depositshield.com.

To request interviews with Mr. Dawes or for inquiries about DepositShield services:
Bernard Smith
(970) 579-0477
http://depositshield.com/contact

To receive bulk rates for your organization:
DepositShield Sales
(970) 579-0477

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