The Top Scams To Look Out For In Real Estate

September 3, 2026

Current Scams In Real Estate 2026

Real Estate Agents are particularly susceptible to scams for a few reasons:

Real estate agents’ contact information is public record.
We go out of our way to market ourselves to strangers online.
We know that a speedy response has a higher closing rate for leads.

We know there a ton of scams out there right now but we narrowed down the list to the top 5 we’ve seen and/or been really upset by.

That way you can keep yourself, your brokerage, and your client’s safe!

1. Zoom links

“Need a single-family home for 1.2M in your area? Let’s jump on a Zoom to talk about it.”

“I found your listing through ____ site. I’d like to tour it, but I’m not there. Can I send you a Zoom link?”

Look out for them sending you a zoom link. They are trying to have you download malware to your computer by pressing the link.

2.Housing RFP Links

This one I was almost a victim of. Housing Commissions and Non-profit developers are being hacked and emails are being sent to their real estate partners to “bid” on an upcoming project. They send the link through Gmail so that when you open it it will have access to your email as a real estate professional and attempt to commit wire fraud with your current clients.

3. Land sellers

Still happening. Scammers will contact agents as out of town land sellers wanting to sell their land with e-signatures and notary closing services… but they were never the sellers. The way to combat this is to run background checks on the number that contacted you and insist on ID if you’ve never met them.

4. Facebook Marketplace Rentals

If you have a listing that looks vacant, the scammer will steal the pictures and put it on facebook marketplace as a rental, collect a deposit/or applicaiton fee from people and then “rent” it out to them while you listing is on the market. A lot of these ads will be posted in other languages so the agent won’t see it easily. Two ways to combat this is with virtual staging or putting a note up at the front door that if this house is only for sale and if you’ve been contacted about a rental that is a scam and you should report it to the police.

Just like the world of real estate is evolving, so is the world of scamming. Always stay vigilant when it comes to protecting yourself and your clients from scammers.

Any scams you’re seeing out there that should be added to our list, comment them at the bottom of this page!

We know there a ton of scams out there right now but we narrowed down the list to the top 5 we’ve seen and/or been really upset by.

1. Zoom links

2.Housing RFP Links

3. Land sellers

4. Facebook Marketplace Rentals

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