Social media scammers are ripping real estate agents’ house videos and making money

San Francisco’s already cutthroat rental market has a new villain — social media scammers stealing legitimate apartment listings and turning them into viral bait aimed at desperate renters.

Fraudsters are taking real apartment tour videos posted by Bay Area realtors and reposting them on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, but with one key twist: they slash the rent to shockingly low prices, according to a report by SFGate.

In one case, a TikTok account called “Budget Friendly Homes” (also known as for_rent_sanfrancisco) gained nearly 12,000 followers by posting polished walkthroughs of trendy apartments near Alamo Square — advertising one-bedroom units for as little as $1,800 a month. The account has since been removed. The scammers reportedly lifted the footage directly from real estate agents’ social media pages and sometimes went as far as impersonating the agents themselves by copying their names, photos, and even license information.

By the time victims realize something is wrong, the scammers have already asked for deposits or application fees before supposedly showing the apartment, then disappear with the money.

“It’s always when the market gets really busy — rents are going up — when there’s limited inventory and a lot of demand, then the scammers come out,” local real estate agent Dave Chesnosky told SFGate.

Agents say the problem has grown alongside the increasing use of social media as a marketing tool. Bay Area Sotheby’s International Realty agent Marsha Abrahams has even had to address the issue directly on her own social media accounts, warning clients that she is not the one offering luxury lofts for extremely low prices.

“The accounts using the handles @for_rent_sanfrancisco and @marsha_abrahams are not affiliated with me in any way,” she wrote on Instagram. “I do not advertise rental listings or request deposits through TikTok, WhatsApp, or text message.”

Compass Realty agent Nick Abraham also had his identity used in one of the scams. He only learned about it after a stranger messaged him asking whether he had received a deposit from a hopeful tenant who had contacted “him” through TikTok — even though Abraham does not use the platform.

“I looked it up and they had taken my actual picture, my actual Department of Real Estate license number, and were impersonating me,” Abraham told SFGate. The scammers even created a fake email account with his name misspelled.

Experts say the basic rule for renting still applies regardless of where you find a listing: if you haven’t seen the apartment in person, don’t send any money.

“I tell people, it’s really easy to figure out if they’re a scam,” Chesnosky said. “Just say you want to see the unit in person. That’s all you’ve got to do.”