Jamaicans living abroad who appoint local property managers to oversee their rental properties are being defrauded through rent diversion, unauthorised property sales, and fictitious maintenance expense claims — with little practical recourse from thousands of miles away.

Ghost tenant fraud involves persons advertising and renting out properties they do not own or have no authority to let, collecting deposits and advance rent from victims before disappearing. The fraud is increasingly conducted through WhatsApp, Facebook Marketplace, and other social media platforms.

Scammers in Jamaica are renting properties through legitimate short-term rental platforms, photographing the units, then advertising them as long-term rentals to multiple victims simultaneously — collecting deposits from several people for a property they have no right to let.

The non-return of rental security deposits is one of Jamaica’s most common tenancy disputes. While the Rent Restriction Act provides some protections, enforcement is limited and many tenants lose deposits to landlords who make bad-faith or exaggerated damage claims.

Scammers are creating fraudulent social media pages, WhatsApp messages, and fake websites that impersonate the National Housing Trust and Ministry of Housing to advertise non-existent government housing lotteries, collecting “application fees” from low-income Jamaicans who believe they are entering a legitimate housing programme.

Jamaican renters are losing deposits to social media scams where fraudsters pose as landlords on Instagram and TikTok, using stolen property photographs and fake contracts to steal thousands before vanishing. Police have issued warnings and a first-time renter has shared their account of losing $140,000.

Jamaica’s commercial property rental market is seeing an increase in fraud targeting small and medium-sized businesses: fake landlords collecting deposits on premises they have no authority to let, tenants illegally subletting at inflated rates, and landlords imposing service charges with no basis in the lease agreement.

First-time buyers in Jamaica are being defrauded by elaborate fake housing scheme advertisements on Facebook and Instagram that mimic legitimate developer marketing, complete with professional renders of properties that do not exist and fake off-plan agreements designed to extract deposits.

Social media platforms have become a primary channel for property listings in Jamaica, particularly for rentals and small lot sales. They have also become a primary channel for property fraud. Criminals create fake profiles that impersonate legitimate real estate agents, developers, or private sellers, post attractive listings at below-market prices, and collect deposits or application fees from victims who never meet the fraudster in person.

University students in Jamaica — particularly those starting at the University of the West Indies, University of Technology, or other institutions — are a consistently targeted group for rental fraud. The combination of time pressure (accommodation must be secured before semester begins), limited local knowledge, and reliance on online listings makes students particularly vulnerable to fake landlords, inflated deposits, and properties that do not exist as advertised.