Scamlord.ai — Onerent’s New Solution to Help Renters Avoid Rental Scams

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Over 5.2 million renters each year are victimized by Fake rental listings. Onerent, the largest residential rental manager on the West Coast, developed Scamlord.ai to help protect renters from fraud.

“Rental scams is a two billion dollar problem in the US. We call these impostor landlords ‘Scamlords’. Our experience in the rental market has made us take a close look at all the tricks Scamlords use. This is the first anti-rental scam tool we’re launching to educate renters and combat scammers,” said Chuck Hattemer, Co-Founder and CMO of Onerent.

Scamlord.ai was designed to help renters detect scamlords while looking for homes. Renters place the information they got from a rental listing to confirm if it’s real or fake. The AI then confirms the details and the likelihood of a scam. This information guides renters for their next steps.

Scamlord.ai is a product of Onerent’s years of experience encountering fraudulent rental listings.

“Our algorithms are tuned to follow rental scammers’ behavioral patterns. These are then fed into a basic machine learning model to identify the likelihood of fraud,” said Julian Kuan, Onerent Lead Data Scientist, and COO.

Prospect renters can now find a home online in peace. Scamlord.ai reduces the risk of engaging in fraudulent transactions with scammers posing as landlords.

“This is essential, especially with the increasing online fraud during the coronavirus pandemic. Some fraudsters claim they’re a landlord who can’t do a showing due to social distancing. They’ll even ask you to transfer money ahead of time,” said Hattemer.

How does it work? The Scamlord AI tracks patterns in the types of properties that scammers target. It also checks the phone numbers they use, particularly VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) numbers created on the Internet.

It can be easy for innocent renters to become victims of rental fraud scams as many of these fake listings look real. Fraudsters use the original listing details and change the contact information with their own.

These scammers then publish this on different listing sites with a rental price below the market. This attracts renters in dire need of a house. Many are successful in tricking renters and even get away with the security deposit and the first month’s rent.

“During a global pandemic, getting deceived, losing your money, and being homeless is even more of a cruel experience. For some, this could lead to greater financial burdens,” said Hattemer.

About Onerent:
Founded in 2014, Onerent helps monetize and manage property in the cloud, streamlining the rental experience. The company manages over $2 billion in residential rental properties across six major metro areas in California, Washington, and Colorado states, with new markets coming soon.

Onerent’s leadership team carries over 50 years of combined real estate experience. The company is venture-backed with over $15 million from numerous Google execs such as Jeff Dean, Chief of AI at Google; Bob Moles, former Trulia board member and CEO of Century 21, XG Ventures, Renren; and the Far East Organization, Singapore’s largest real estate developer.

Contact:
Chuck Hattemer
CMO & Co-founder
chuck@onerent.co
(408) 899-8429