AI tools are allowing prospective renters to convincingly falsify pay stubs to make themselves look like the top candidate for a competitive unit.
San Francisco’s apartment market is on fire, thanks in large part to an AI hype wave that has pushed monthly rent for a one-bedroom past $4,000. But the same industry upending the market is also making it easier for tenants to fake out landlords with sophisticated false documents, the San Francisco Standard reports.
Headlines have concentrated on tenants duped by fake listings and duplicitous agents who defraud people out of thousands for apartments that don’t really exist. But in this ultra-competitive market, both landlords and tenants can be fooled.
Leasing agent Milan Jezdimirovic of Compass said he’s long had tenants try to trick their way into apartments.
New versions of the scheme require an even closer look.
“AI did not create this, but it made fake documents faster to produce and harder to spot quickly,” he said. “We now have to verify everything more carefully: employer, deposits, prior landlord, credit, and ID.”
Eighty-five percent of San Francisco landlords say they are worried about fraud in tenant applications, according to a recent survey of 1,400 landlords around the country by background-check company Checkr. Of the 14 cities surveyed, San Francisco respondents had the highest proportion concerned about fake or altered pay stubs, bank statements, or income documents.
Victor Kabdebon, GM of Checkr’s new tenant screening platform, said even experienced landlords may not realize they’ve been duped until it’s too late.
“These findings show that rental fraud is a two-sided problem, and application fraud may be more prevalent and harder to detect than many people realize,” he said. “It also underscores why transparency matters for both sides of the rental process, particularly in a fast-moving market like San Francisco.”
Checkr’s survey found that multifamily owners in the city are actually slightly less concerned about identity theft and fraud than apartment owners nationally.
In San Francisco, 70% of landlords surveyed said they discovered or suspected application fraud that resulted in an eviction, and 28% said they lost at least $5,000 in missed rent, property damage, and other costs because of a fraudulent tenant.
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Photo credit deposit photos.
