Inside the Instagram Network Selling Fake Rental Applications
Everybody’s talking about Rental Application Fraud these days. The Wall Street Journal covered an Atlanta property manager who lost $40,000 to sophisticated scammers. Business Insider showed how the surge in rental fraud is creating a nightmare for honest renters by driving up application fees.
Snappt even put together and excellent interactive map, tracking fraud detection and hotspots in real-time.
Going undercover
We went undercover to see how renters actually get these fake application docs: pay stubs, bank statements, 1099s, W2s, and matching IDs. Total cost: $550
Finding the fraudsters
Using fake documents is very much illegal, so our team expected that all of this would live in murky chat rooms and the Dark Web.
But it turns out that Instagram is host to a massive marketplace of counterfeiters. A quick search for "fake paystubs" returns dozens of accounts that promise fake documents, high approval rates, and fast service.
Facebook is a little tougher, with most of this activity living within private groups. And if you’re plugged into WhatsApp or Telegram, there are even more available. Fraud merchants will often move the conversation from Instagram to these messaging platforms.
So Instagram proved to be the easiest entry point. After sending a DM, the first reply came within minutes. The sellers were remarkably responsive. More responsive, in fact, than most legitimate businesses.
How they operate
Pricing is transparent, with most sellers featuring clear pricing lists pinned to the top of their Instagram profiles. Package options are laid out like a menu at a restaurant. Some merchants are even brazen enough to use their own personal photos.
They operate like small, legitimate businesses.
Marketing materials are polished and consistent, often featuring testimonials from satisfied "customers"
Although some sellers are based in India/Pakistan, the majority appear to be US-based.
Domestic sellers are consistently more expensive but also more responsive and more knowledgeable about the latest verification tools and workarounds.
Several specifically advertised their ability to bypass Snappt, a leading document verification solution widely used in the multifamily industry. One seller proudly explained they had actually created their own payroll processing company they would be more likely to pass document verification than fake ADP pay stubs.
The Fraud Catalog
These sellers offered a smorgasbord of rental fraud services:
Bank statements that match authentic formats from major financial institutions
Pay stubs from recognizable payroll providers including ADP, claiming pixel-perfect match
Tax forms including 1099s and W2s
Fake IDs complete with holograms and security features
Landlord and employer references where the seller will personally answer verification calls
Package deals when bundling multiple documents
Full-service options where they log in and complete the entire application process, connecting to bank accounts or payroll providers, and passing the ID/selfie checks used by more sophisticated property managers
Package pricing ranged from $40 for basic documents to $800 for a white-glove experience.
Time to buy
After picking out what you want, the sellers request payment by Zelle, Cash App, Apple Pay, or even credit card. Depending on the merchant, payment was either 100% upfront or split half upfront and half upon completion. Surprisingly nobody expected payment in crypto.
Turnaround time ranged from 1-3 days, with the most sophisticated counterfeiter taking the full three days. All sellers were impressively responsive and delivered finished documents via email as PDF attachments.
The results
The documents themselves were alarmingly good. Even to the well-trained eye, these look like legitimate documents, with special attention paid to details like local bank transactions and expected monthly variation in payroll.
💡 Check out the full trove of fake documents we purchased here.
The most surprising discovery
Even though we were posing as scammers, nobody scammed us. Every seller was responsive and delivered exactly what was promised. There were no attempts to rip us off or blackmail.
These operators understand that word-of-mouth and repeat business drives their success. They actually care about their reputation.
They're even running marketing campaigns and posting testimonials around their ability to get someone with “13 evictions” approved.
Even if you can't afford these professional fake documents, AI is making it easy to make them yourself. Image manipulation is now good enough that DoorDash is fighting scammers who use AI to claim defective orders and get a refund. The barrier to entry for rental fraud keeps going down.
Why this matters
It's not surprising that Rental Application Fraud is everywhere today when you consider:
It's easy. Finding sellers takes seconds with an Instagram search.
It's cheap. For $200, anyone can buy a application documents that will pass even the most advanced verification tools.
It's convenient. The entire process is remarkably professional and organized.
And the scammers are technically sophisticated. They're constantly testing their products against the latest verification tools and adapting accordingly.
The bottom line
It’s a cat-and-mouse game and the property managers are losing.
Finding sellers on Instagram was instant. Response times to our DMs averaged was less than 10 minutes. Negotiating services, agreeing on pricing, and arranging payment took less than an hour of back-and-forth messaging. The longest part of the process was waiting for document delivery, which took three days at most.
In the time it takes most property managers to schedule a showing, review an application, and run a background check, a fraudster can have a complete set of professional-grade fake documents.
If you're still checking documents and IDs by eye, you're putting your clients, yourself, and your sanity at risk.
How to protect yourself
There there are a ton of great options out there that will give you a fighting chance against the army of scammers.
Look specifically for rental application solutions that:
Match IDs with selfies, including liveliness verification
Check every bank statement and pay stub for tampering or forgery by looking for pixel-perfect matches to authentic documents
Offer direct bank account or payroll connection is much harder to fake
Verify phone numbers are real cell numbers, not VoIP lines commonly used by scammers
Require two-factor reference checks
These scammers are only getting better and bolder. Make a plan to protect yourself and your clients.