Sublet scam: The reveal

When we left off, re: our search for a sublet for a neighbor, everything seemed above board:
Name and license number verified
Video walkthrough provided

But something still felt… off.

Let’s recall the criteria:
A teenage son
Two cats
An adult significant other who’s in the picture (but not necessarily the lease)

So, we’re looking for a pet-friendly, two-bedroom, one-bath apartment without existing roommates for four months. And it seemed like we found one, along with a responsive counter-party.

The broker had a 917 number.

So, I called him to touch base. He had a foreign accent. This was enough to forgive the grammatical error in his email response. Yet, when I looked up his license info, I found listings tied to a Western New York area code.

Huh?

I pulled up LinkedIn and searched for him. The person I looked up was definitely a broker, and his profile pic matched that of those on one of the listings sites, only all of his properties were for Western New York, where he was seemingly based.

Plus, the LinkedIn profile pic didn’t, shall we say, look like a person that had the same accent as the person with whom I spoke?

So, I called the 917 number again and asked straight up: “It looks like you’re licensed and practicing in Western New York?” He replied: “Oh, I moved.”

Hmm.

I wasn’t buying it. So I called the Western New York number listed alongside the Western New York property listings. Worst case, I could apologize for calling the same guy’s other line.

Only a different guy picked up.

Me: “I’m looking at some listings I believe you have in the New York metro area…”
Him (cutting me off): “I’ll stop you there. Someone’s stolen my identity.”

He explained he’d already reported it to the Department of State and the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), NYC’s real estate trade association. No one’s been able to take the scammer down.

He’s stealing deposits from renters after fake showings.

And just like that, my suspicions were confirmed. I thanked him, hung up, and blocked the fraud. (While I won’t disclose names, mostly to protect the legit broker, I can confirm that the scammer’s listings have since been pulled from Craigslist.)

The lesson?

Without careful checks — license verification, cross-referencing phone numbers, diving into online profiles — my neighbor could have been scammed out of thousands.

This is exactly why working with a licensed, local real estate professional matters. Scammers prey on anyone who doesn’t know how to vet them.

Be safe out there. And if you ever need someone to help navigate these waters, I’m here.