A warning about some burglary scam in which "agents" come to see the apartment and test the locks with keys they have.
Neighborhoods:
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:
A warning about some burglary scam in which "agents" come to see the apartment and test the locks with keys they have.
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Wow!
By jonbowen
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 8:47am
Not surprising. Losers will find any angle they can
In order to loot people.
Bump key?
By Kaz
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 10:02am
Sounds like a bump key with a poor cover story if they start to loot a place with people in it. Because while the blog said that police are aware of scammers that somehow get keys to a place that is going on the market soon, it doesn't sound like that was the case here. It sounded like the bloggers knew it was a scam because they weren't moving any time soon.
Unless you get a good look at a bump key to see that it's a filed-down blank, you might guess that they had a legitimate key for your lock (again, how are they getting a key for your lock? Makes no sense if they aren't actually part of a realty group that is about to sell your place).
So many agents are rude and clueless...
By anon
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 10:47am
that even a more-street-smart renter might not notice that this was a break-in attempt.
I've had realtors walk in without calling first, not know which key opens the apartment, and just generally meander around completely clueless and completely unannounced.
When I see an apartment without a chain lock, I know that the management company allows this behavior. If you rent from sketchfests, chain locks are $2 and an easy install.
Not Surprised...
By cybah
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 11:15am
I'm really not surprised about this. I knew eventually some criminal would figure out how non-secure apartment rentals are in Boston. Faxes are blasted out every morning with new rentals, and its pretty much every man for themselves at rental agencies. One minute so and so from XYZ Realty may be showing your apartment, then the next appointment is by ABC Realty. No consistency.
As a renter how am I suppose to check the validity of who's real and who's not. I can't. So you have to just let people in. And real estate agents got real mad when I requested 24 hours notice at a set time? This is why.. at least I know ahead of time. Not when some rental agent might just 'stop in' to show without any notice.
And I won't even begin to talk about how poorly keys for rental units are managed among different agencies. (big walls of keys with addresses on them.. no key control, no knowing where keys are, no security at all).
Renters are just sitting ducks. And the rental agent looked at me weird when I requested a lock change when I moved in. Too many people have keys (and too many locks are just worn out due to the comings and goings so often and badly cut keys)
Yeah I know this is about something a bit different, but its really not all that different.
Has to do with the slum lords
By anon²
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 11:21am
And there are laws about landlords having to give notice, and about apartment showings, but they're rarely followed in certain areas of the city.
Best thing is to find an agent and office that you trust and doesn't pull the fly by seat of pants bullshit that A LOT of the satellite offices do around the city.
Took me a bit to catch on when I first moved here, and unfortunately that's how the slum rental agencies do their business with the slum lords.
This is untrue
By cybah
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 12:17pm
This is untrue.. I've seen some "high class" brokers do this. It has nothing to do with slum lords. There's no such thing as 'rental exclusive' anymore (unless its a penthouse). Landlords just want renters so they go to whoever to get it rented and say "get it rented at all costs" and they do..
As a renter you don't have a choice when your place is rented.. when you are a renter LOOKING, you have plenty of choices, but it all comes out of the same pool.
How
By anon²
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 2:13pm
A landlord goes about renting his property is a a clue to how he will be as a landlord.
Should have keep my rant short and sweet, sorry.
Ah, terrible landlords
By carreening
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 1:17pm
Some friends and I had a landlord at our first apartment who totally relied on us being young, naive and not knowing our rights. Rental agents, work crews and who knows who else would show up without warning, but we could never get anything fixed when we called about it. Right before moving out he started just letting himself in (he had decided we were not moving out and he wanted to throw out our stuff) and it took me going to the police to get him to back off.
I'd like to see more effort made by the city and the colleges a lot of these young renters are going to to get the word out on tenant rights.
One time
By Matthew
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 2:00pm
Some guy came to my door and said he was an agent and wanted to take pictures of my apartment. Even showed me a license. I told him no. Never heard about it again.
OP here. Our landlord gave us
By anon
Mon, 07/23/2012 - 6:18pm
OP here. Our landlord gave us the names of two realtors that we will be working with. Just after we finished filing a police report, another realtor showed up unannounced. His office had called our landlord to ask if they could show. She said no, and they came anyway. We explained the situation and asked them to leave, and the realtor said "thanks for making this difficult".
Any talk of malice aside, I have experienced a great deal of disrespect from realtors regarding that whole "coming into the place where you live and keep all your stuff". I'm not going to out this company here, but this is the same one that didn't follow simple, clearly-marked directions and left a back door open - which let our cats out into the back stairwell when they were showing another place of mine years ago.
Ever since I heard a scumbag brag about going with a realtor to places and stealing ipods and jewelry, showing time has been exponentially more stressful.
Long story short, if there is any possible way you can, do these things:
1. Have locks changed when you move in.
2. Talk to your landlord about who has access to a key.
3. If your job/etc allows, only allow people (realtors, maintenance, plumbers) in yourself.
4. Get names and companies from all realtors showing the apartment.
5. If there is a super/building manager on the premises, have them call you to confirm when someone requests access.
The whole bump key thing has always freaked me out. These guys definitely had a legit key which they used to get in. Also got some questions about if these dudes were just realtors. I've never seen realtors: A. run four dudes deep and B. say "oh shit" when they walk into the smallest room (that happens to have a macbook and music gear in it).
Stay vigilant,
GTFOAllston
Ah, ok
By Kaz
Tue, 07/24/2012 - 12:12pm
I couldn't tell from your blog that you were looking to move and had already been talking to realtors. So, I figured a bump key would be the easiest way to get in if you weren't expecting people to come by.
Good luck with all that and I hope they catch the guys who almost had a quick score on your account.