What is everyone doing to control leasing to people with fake check stubs and fake ID etc.

What is everyone doing to control leasing to people with fake check stubs and fake ID etc. This is a huge problem in Houston and just hoping for some new ideas to stop this activity on my properties. Any input is welcomed.

We are required to send income verifications directly to the claimed employer, my favorite is when they call me and laugh because they've never heard of the person I'm trying to verify!

They have people verifying employment as well! It is a very intelligent operation!

Diana Vasquez Romero I ask for an office number we cNt do certifications thru a cell number imo

Felicia Cweren Lewin No cell numbers and we must correspond thru a company email address!

Therese Miner exactly! Have to push back with all the phony stuff we get

Diana Vasquez Romero okcaller.com is free and you can look up who the phone number belongs to

Felicia Cweren Lewin they are always like. Well we are working from home so they are using their personal email.
That is not how companies work sorry.

Therese Miner agree! I had like 5 applicants on one unit one after the other. All 5 were fake check stubs

Felicia Cweren Lewin it seems to be the current issue. I process 3-7 apps a week and half at least have fake check stubs. And cpn numbers !
You ain’t fooling me!

yea be careful, I had a girl apply with a fake ID fake everything. ran the credit report and it came back fine. she paid in money orders at move in and come to find out the moneyorders were stolen and the directive had just went into effect. what a night mare that was.

Jenn Cove if the name on the lease didn’t belong to her, she wasn’t the legal tenant. At least that was what our lawyer told us when we caught a fake ID after move in.

If I call employers, I’m not using whatever BS number they gave me. That has caught at least 2 people.

DA Hall same for me. Ive caught one so far. I like being part detective—It makes my obsessive compulsion with watching crime shows feel like it’s paying off

Kathi Marie SAME! After describing how I found some background info on an ex-resident, my teenaged daughter said “I guess all your crime shows and podcasts make you think you’re a detective.”

Checkpoint ID for verifying ID's. Reasonably priced if you are having an issue with this.

Weed way more of them out before they even complete an app with social engineering. Add a field “when we call your employer is there someone specific we should speak to?” Also add a note to the company phone number field “must match company business number listed online”. We have extremely few scammers submitting applications.

I think it is sad at the number of fraudulent applications we get with fraudulent information, Every time I get one I want to send it t the police and report it to the credit bureau and social security. You should have seen the social security card I received last week, it was so bad.

Well if your application is anything like ours, down by where they do their signature, it gives us the right to verify every piece of information on the application. So if you suspect the applicant has provided fake income, all you have to do is call the employer, and do not use the number they provide but find it yourself, and verify their employment. We have even had some that I literally sent us a screenshot of their paystub and on the top it says “fakepaystub‘s. com ”.

wow its actually says fakepaystub's.com, that is crazy. Not sure were verification are heading but I think we need to do a more drastic change.

I'm in Houston too. They always make some stupid mistake on their documents when fake. Check the math on taxes, year to date, check numbers. Whenever in doubt, we ask for bank statements for 3 months showing the direct deposits. When I call them I ask who are you banking with? Chase wells Fargo etc? Usually they will throw out a name like Chase. I'm like oh perfect they're super easy to log in and get them and you can email them to me I need them today. That way I know it's a chase statement I'm looking for and they can't go make a fake bank statement now lol. Worked every time. They never send in thr bank statements and abandon the application process.

I send employment verifications to the HR department for every application, we get the numbers ourselves

It’s bad up in Fort Worth too. Luckily their check stubs and Ids aren’t the only thing that’s fake. Our credit system shows their socials as fake as well.

I’ve used Google Earth to help me see the business. Once someone told me they worked for a car dealership but the work address they gave me was a house. Plain as day. They abandoned the process when I asked for more information.

The TenantCloud podcast has a few episodes that tackle this issue.

4 this week...(I’m in the Vegas area) thankfully they misspelled things, all paystubs looked different, addresses never had record of them & they couldn’t supply bank statements to correspond with stubs which is now a requirement but I’ve no doubt had some squeak by. We start CheckpointID next month which will help too but it sure is getting more and more prevalent (and frustrating)

We can help you with this issue at checkpointid. If you would like to know more please send me a message and I would be happy to show you how we can help!

Verify with the employer, in addition to the pay stub? Have law enforcement or Liquor Control Board give workshop in spotting fake IDs?

I love Checkpoint ID but it has let me down TWICE within the past 6 months. A criminal is a criminal and they know the ends and outs. They are getting smarter every day.

Ask for 3 months of stubs. Usually stops the fakers

The fake stubs are usually missing something. Correct taxes, hours, pay periods. Just have to scrutinize them.

Copy of live check or bank statement showing the direct deposit.

Observant Leasing Consultant s is the best defense. Ours are amazing

We had an applicant recently that said she had an offer letter because she was moving for the job and the one she sent us was literally for someone with a completely different first and last name

Hi Felicia.

I think we know each other through LU Inc.

Our property management software, RentecDirect (which is ideal for small properties but probably not for more than 200 units), has an income verification add on for $5 that we use on applications. The applicant(s) must input their bank account number through the secure third party system. We receive a one page report that shows all of their regular paychecks deposited over the past year as well as bonuses and irregular deposits such as a Venmo transactions or unemployment. It also shows us their average balance over the past 12 months and their current balance. We match it up with the information we've been supplied on the application. It's much more useful to learn what someone's income was over the past year rather than just over the past 2-3 months.

In addition, if an applicant opts out of our income verification, then we go directly to their company's website to find out who the managers or HR reps are. We call them using the phone number we looked up, not the one provided on the application. If we made a mistake and called the wrong person at the company, most of the time they are happy to transfer us to the right person to speak with or to provide that person's name, email or number.

RentecDirect also allows us to conduct a SSN check as part of our application package. It will tell us if an applicant has had their SSN stolen or whether it's invalid for any reason. We match the information on the SSN report to their credit check to see if the addresses, names, ages, etc generally match up. There's nothing we can use yet for those who reside in the US legally but don't have an SSN but the SSN check works for us on 90% plus of the applicants we receive.

Our applications give us permission to follow up on income verification with employers so if we have to call, email, or fax over information requests, we do it. If you structure your questions efficiently and appropriately (we use three yes/no questions that don't divulge too much personal information), then most are happy to answer.

We've seen some of the fake stuff here in South Carolina as well. Looking really closely at the paystubs can be key and can give away what's real and what's not. You can also ask for "additional consecutive pay stubs from a previous month" and see what they come up with to make sure they match up with what you've already been provided. The year-to-date pay and benefits should be consistent as well as the increments and dates of pay.

It would be nice if we could forward these fake applications to the police for fraud.