• Cancel your account with the credit report site immediately. They won't let you do this online, so you'll have to call an 800 number to cancel. They'll try to talk you out of canceling. Stand firm.
• Watch your credit card statements carefully. Some of the "free credit report" services are owned by companies notorious for slipping unauthorized charges onto your bill. Watch your statements, and pounce on those bogus charges like a kitten on a dust bunny. Dispute them, or file a chargeback if necessary.
• Your personal data is probably safe, but just in case, keep an eye on your credit report. Use AnnualCreditReport.com. I like to order a report from a different credit bureau every four months, so it remains free, but I have a broad sense of what's getting reported over time. The scammers aren't out to steal your identity. They're out to collect affiliate fees for selling you a not-so-free credit report.
• Remember, you're not stupid. Credit checks are a common part of the rental process, so don't feel stupid for not being suspicious at first.

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(Photo: brendancox)

My friend Amanda is looking for a new apartment, and last week she responded to an appealing ad on Craigslist. There was no apartment, though...just a credit report scam that's showing up in more and more cities.

Here's how the scam works. An ad goes up for a house or an apartment at an appealing rent. (See an example.) The ads don't change much from city to city, and are vague about where the place is located. The person who placed the ad e-mails prospective renters back with a rental application, a promise to walk them through the property soon, and a request for a copy of your credit report.

The demand for a credit report is the only part of this scam that's real. It's an affiliate link to one of the "free" credit report services. You know, like FreeCreditReport.com, only shadier and without the annoying TV commercials. The URL to the "free" credit report contains the scammer's affiliate code, and they receive money for every new customer referred to the credit report site.

Since the apartments often have suspiciously low rents for the area, the landlord scammer can just pretend that someone else was approved before you. Victims of the scam continue in their apartment hunts, never the wiser until strange charges for credit monitoring services show up on their credit card bill.

Here's an example of one of the e-mails. When my friend e-mailed the person offering the apartment asking where the place was located, she received this reply from George:

Hi,

We try to keep our costs and our tenants costs to a minimum so we can rent our units fast and keep them rented. Pets are accepted if you have any.

Hopefully I can walk you through the property either tomorrow or within the next few days.

Once you have these completed the steps below, send me an email. This really is a very nice rental especially for the price. Wont last long at this price.

Here is our Rental Application: Here
Print it out and bring it with you when we look at the property.

You'll need a copy of your credit report. Your report is free with a free trial. This will save me from charging you any fees for checking your credit history. Get it at http://www.rentalinvestors.net/freecreditreport.html

Regards,
George
Rental Investors

"Wont last long at this price," indeed.

She replied to him, again asking where the apartment was located—which, after all, was the only thing she asked in her initial e-mail. He never responded.

We reported on a very similar employment ad scam back in February. Apparently, people become suspicious when a prospective employer asks for a credit check before the interview, but a credit check as part of a rental application is much more plausible.

Many Consumerist readers have spotted this scam, and some have gone through with the credit checks. If you're one of them, carefully watch your credit card statements, dispute any charges you never asked for, and be sure to get a real free credit report from Annualcreditreport.com every year.

Here's a partial list of sham real estate companies, and the credit report companies they're sending business to. If you've run into similar ads, send us an e-mail with the fake company's information, and we'll add it to the list.

Landlords:
Equal Opportunity Rentals - equalopportunityrentals.com
Rental Investors - rentalinvestors.net
Katie's Rentals - katiesrentals.com
Metro Apartments - metroapartments.org
Anna's Rental Properties annasrentalproperties.com
Reed Apartments - reedapartments.org - marissa@reedapartments.org
ZT Apartments - zt_apts@earthlink.net
http://www.creditgradegroup.com - wayne.morrison20@gmail.com
Derek Couture - dcouture1977@gmail.com
Exquisite Rentals - exquisiterentals.com - ExquisiteRentals@mail.com
Kimberly McReynolds - kimberlymcreynolds2@gmail.com

Credit check services;
http://www.my-credit-score-now.com
http://www.creditreportamerica.com (See their BBB report and previous Consumerist appearance.)
http://www.gofreecredit.com
http://creditreporteveryone.com
http://creditreportprocessor.com
http://check-your-credit-online.com
http://CreditScoreDeluxe.com
http://www.icredit-scores.com

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(Photo: cincyproject)

A couple of days ago I submitted a tip regarding my sudden inability to order a new GoPhone through the AT&T online store; my orders went through successfully, but were then later cancelled under mysterious circumstances no one I spoke with at AT&T could explain.
 
After several more calls and nearly an hour on hold I finally got to speak with supervisor Cheryl Johnson in the web store order processing department. Ms. Johnson then informed me that my orders were being cancelled because they had been unable to verify my credit history. This raises two interesting questions for which she had no answers:
 
1) What is suddenly wrong with my credit history in AT&T's eyes? I've ordered from them without any problems in the past, and my score is in the upper 700s.
 
2) Why is AT&T performing a credit history check on a GoPhone purchase in the first place? Everything is prepaid and there is absolutely no chance that anyone attempting to establish a new prepaid account could possibly defraud them in any way. That's kinda what "prepaid" means.
 
Ms. Johnson blatantly refused to answer either of these questions and simply read some pre-prepared rejection script that was obviously coming up on her computer screen as rudely as she could in an attempt to interrupt me in mid-speech. Once she finally ran out of things to parrot I asked why it was that a supervisor in the AT&T order processing department did not know how the AT&T order processing process worked well enough to explain to me why my orders were being cancelled, and she said that this was something the credit department handled. I asked for their number, and of course, they don't take inbound calls and Cheryl refused to transfer me. I asked her if she was in any way motivated to find out what was wrong with their system and help me, and, to her credit, she answered honestly with a simple "no."
 
So, beware: if you buy an AT&T GoPhone online they will make some ham- handed attempt at accessing your credit history.