08/18/2026
🚨 COMMUNITY ALERT: RENTAL & REAL ESTATE SCAMS 🚨
The Clover Police Department wants to make our community aware of rental and real estate scams targeting prospective renters and homebuyers. Scammers are becoming increasingly convincing, often using real property photos, legitimate addresses, and information copied from actual listings to make their scams appear legitimate.
A common scam involves someone advertising a home for rent that they do not own or have authority to rent. The scammer may offer the property at an unusually low price and then pressure the victim to send a security deposit, application fee, or first month's rent before seeing the property in person.
⚠️ Watch for these warning signs:
• Rent or purchase prices that seem too good to be true
• Someone refusing or making excuses about meeting you at the property
• Requests for money before you have toured the property or signed legitimate documents
• Pressure to act immediately because "other people are interested"
• Requests for payment by wire transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency, or other difficult-to-recover methods
• Requests for Social Security numbers, banking information, or copies of identification before you've verified who you're dealing with
• Listings containing unusual wording, spelling errors, or information that doesn't match other advertisements for the property
✅ Before sending money, VERIFY!
Visit the property in person whenever possible. Confirm the person offering the property actually owns it or is authorized to represent the owner. You can also search the property address online and compare listings. If you find the same home advertised by different people, at different prices, or with different contact information, that's a major red flag.
You can also perform a reverse-image search on photographs from the listing. Scammers frequently copy photographs from legitimate real estate listings and use them to create fraudulent advertisements.
Most importantly, don't allow anyone to rush you into sending money or providing personal information. Taking a few extra minutes to verify a listing could prevent you from losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
If you believe you have encountered a fraudulent rental or real estate listing, report the listing to the platform where it appeared and contact the appropriate law enforcement agency.
STOP. VERIFY. THEN PAY.
Please share this information with your family, friends, and neighbors, especially anyone currently looking for a home or rental property.
Clover Police Department
Protecting our community through awareness and prevention.