SPRINGFIELD, Missouri — Imagine you’re at home and there’s a knock on the door. You answer it and someone says they think they’re in an apartment that’s advertised for rent online. That can’t be because you’re actively living in the same apartment. So you explain it must be a mistake and the person leaves.

Then it happens again. And again. And another time.

Welcome to the life of Serenity Barnett over the past few weeks.

Potential scammers post her and her neighbor’s rental apartment on social media as if it were available for rent, but then discover that it is already occupied.

“Two weeks ago, a couple of people came to us. They said, ‘Hey, do you live here?’ And we said we live here. He said, ‘How about the one next door?’ I told him there were a couple of people living there, and he said, ‘We signed a lease and paid our fees and we’re going to pick up the keys,'” Barnett said. “We told them that wasn’t possible because someone was already living there and they had to contact the real estate company. They told us that they had contacted someone on Facebook who posts rentals on Marketplace and that they had paid their money and were just coming to pick up the keys.”

This was not the only case.

“People would come by once a day and knock on our door to ask (if we live here) and well, yes, we live here,” Barnett said. “They have the same story. They contacted someone on Facebook Marketplace who had rented an apartment, signed a lease, paid the fees and was going to pick up the keys. One of the people even said, ‘Hey, there’s a lock box somewhere. Can you show me where it is?’ We notified our real estate company and they said they knew about it and had already reported it, but it’s still posting. I had gone on Facebook and was able to find my apartment or house, the inside of my house, with all the pictures of my exact address posted with the neighbors’ address.”

This has led to some dissatisfied potential tenants.

“(One person) lost quite a bit. He had already paid the first month’s rent, a security deposit and half of the second month’s rent,” Barnett said. “One of the last couples that reached out to us was an older couple who lived elsewhere in Missouri. It was about a three-hour drive away. He said, ‘I just got a job up here. I have a week to move.’ This lady, we gave the money and she told us to come here and then she blocked us and we couldn’t get a hold of her anymore. I really felt terrible for her

The uninvited visits have caused Barnett, her child and her husband to change their attitude toward enjoying their home.

“I really don’t go outside much. My little one and I used to play outside every day, but right now I don’t want anyone to talk to me. We stay in the house and are extra cautious now. If we see someone coming to our front door, we don’t even open the door anymore,” Barnett said. “I don’t want to have to tell these people that someone already lives here because I don’t know how people are going to react.”

Pamela Hernandez of the Better Business Bureau says this is a scam that is more common in other cities.

“Phishing scams are usually about creating fear, and when it comes to renting, renting a house or an apartment, it’s a little bit of both. You’re excited because you might have found something in your price range in an area you were looking at, but then there’s the fear,” Hernandez said. “The fear that you’re going to lose it, that you have to act immediately, and scammers are taking advantage of both. They’re trying to offer someone a great rental price in a tight and, for many people, tough market, but you have to act. If you want to secure it, you have to put down a deposit. You have to run a credit check. That’s how they can lure people in.”

She says it is easy for scammers to post a message online under false pretenses.

“It’s very easy to take images from other websites, to take images from Google, post them there and create a fake listing. It doesn’t take much to do this. The scammer will create a very realistic looking social media post or a listing on some sort of online marketplace and offer a great deal,” Hernandez said. “They usually try to make contact through social media or through messages of some sort and then they start demanding a lot of information and even money from you up front. Again, they’re trying to create this fear (the idea that) you need to act immediately.”

As for remedies, Hernandez says there are options.

“It depends on how they paid the deposit or how they did the credit check. If they use a credit card, there are some protections built into credit cards. You can report that fraud to the credit card company. Consumers often tell us when they report this type of fraud, they’re asked to withdraw the money through some sort of peer-to-peer payment app, but with (payment methods like) Cash Apps, you don’t have the same kind of protection,” Hernandez said. “You want to report it. Whether that’s your local police department, you definitely want to report it to the BBB, that way we can share the information with consumers. You can report it to the Attorney General’s Office. They have a consumer protection section, so there are a number of places you can report it to.”

Barnett says it’s important to do your due diligence and look at places before investing.

“I would suggest, because I’ve also looked for an apartment on Facebook before. I always take the address provided and search it on Google. You can use Zillow, Trulia and all those things to find out who actually owns the apartment,” Barnett said.

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