Ghost Tenants: How Fraudsters Collect Rent on Properties They Have No Right to Let

• Fraudsters advertise properties they have no right to let and collect deposits from multiple victims.
• WhatsApp and Facebook Marketplace are the primary channels for ghost tenant advertising.
• Victims are often shown the property — which the fraudster has accessed via a viewing or short-term booking.
• Verifying the landlord’s registered ownership through the NLA is the primary defence.
• Victims can report rental fraud to the JCF and the Consumer Affairs Commission.

Ghost tenant fraud in Jamaica operates on a simple premise: a fraudster locates a property that is genuinely available for rent or that appears attractive in photographs, advertises it as available to let — at a slightly below-market rate to attract interest quickly — and collects deposits and advance rent from one or more victims before vanishing. The victim arrives at the property to take up occupation and finds either that the true owner knows nothing of the arrangement, that the property was never available, or that they are one of several people who paid for the same property.

Social media platforms — particularly WhatsApp groups dedicated to rental listings and Facebook Marketplace — have made this fraud substantially easier to execute. A fraudster can post photographs of a property they do not control, communicate with multiple prospective tenants simultaneously, collect deposits via bank transfer or mobile payment, and disappear without having met any victim in person. The investigation and recovery of funds in these cases is challenging.

The In-Person Variant

A more sophisticated version of ghost tenant fraud involves the fraudster gaining access to a genuine property — through a legitimate viewing appointment, a short-term rental booking, or a social connection with the occupier — and using that access to present the property to prospective tenants as if they were the landlord. This variant is harder to detect because the prospective tenant has physically visited a real property and met a person who can credibly answer questions about it.

The defence against both variants is the same: before paying any deposit, a prospective tenant should ask to see the title deed and verify that the person they are dealing with is the registered owner by conducting a title search on the NLA’s eLandJamaica portal. If the landlord is an agent, they should be verified through the Real Estate Board’s licence register. Victims of rental fraud can make a report to the Jamaica Constabulary Force and to the Consumer Affairs Commission of Jamaica.

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