By Kyle Nelson
Fraud is no longer hiding in the shadows. It’s being taught and sold in plain sight — sometimes with hashtags and tutorial videos. Across the multifamily housing industry, operators are seeing the effects firsthand: fake documents are slipping through, unqualified tenants are being approved and eviction rates are rising as a result.
On TikTok, an unexpected market has emerged where users trade tips and tools for falsifying income, employment and identity to gain access to rental housing. This trend is not limited to individual bad actors offering a forged pay stub here and there. It’s an entire “fraud kit,” complete with templated documents, spoofed phone numbers and instructions for rerouting direct deposits.
This activity feeds a growing fraud economy that directly impacts property performance. Evictions, payment defaults and application fraud are increasing, and leasing teams often aren’t equipped to spot the tactics behind them.
For multifamily housing operators, social media is an accessible platform where fraud is quickly transforming into a coordinated and visible operation. TikTok and other social networks serve as distribution hubs for real estate fraud, accelerating the speed and sophistication of fake rental applications.
The Rise of Fraud-as-a-Service
Faking a pay stub or employment letter used to require technical skill or inside knowledge. Now, it takes 30 seconds with a smartphone. TikTok creators openly advertise “document packages” that mimic real human resources communications, payroll systems and bank transactions.
Some even go so far as to register fake companies with payroll providers to generate what appears to be legitimate employment and income history. Others send small trial deposits to applicants’ bank accounts to mimic an ongoing payroll relationship. Paired with a convincing offer letter and pay stub, this tactic can be difficult to detect using traditional document-based checks.
What makes this especially concerning is that the barrier to entry has collapsed. Users don’t need to create anything themselves — they can purchase fraud kits marketed like digital products, with customer service and reviews to match. Social platforms are becoming marketplaces for deception.
Why the Multifamily Industry is Vulnerable
Multifamily housing operators are uniquely vulnerable to this wave of fraud for a few key reasons. First, most leasing workflows still rely heavily on manual document review or static verification tools. These can be effective for catching obvious forgeries, but they struggle with fraud that mimics legitimate data sources, like payroll-generated stubs from shell companies.
Second, many multifamily operators lack access to shared fraud intelligence. Because screening is often handled at the property level, teams tend to address fraud case by case, without broader visibility into trends affecting other sites or regions. This fragmented response makes it harder to spot patterns across applications.
Finally, the industry’s fragmented tech stack creates vulnerabilities. Leasing agents may be using different systems to verify identity, income and employment, creating vulnerable entry points for fraudsters.
What Operators Must Do to Stay Ahead of TikTok Fraud
The good news: there is a solution. But it does require a mindset shift, from reactive fraud prevention to proactive fraud strategy. Here are five steps multifamily operators must consider:
- 1. Break reliance on static documents.
Most fraud kits circulating on TikTok are designed to bypass visual reviews. Some use AI to generate fake documents from scratch, while others manipulate real data using layered image and text overlays. Relying on PDFs or screenshots is no longer sufficient. Operators must verify employment and income using trusted data sources, such as secure bank transaction reviews and third-party employment databases.
- 2. Recognize and track common fraud kit patterns.
Social media-driven fraud often follows a formula. Sellers distribute templates that are reused across multiple applications, meaning one fraud ring might generate dozens or hundreds of nearly identical submissions. These documents may include the same formatting, employer names or unrealistic pay cycles. Even if the content appears professional, fraud signals often repeat.
- 3. Monitor social channels for emerging threats.
Housing operators can’t ignore the platforms fraudsters are using to share and sell fraud tactics. Hashtags like #fakestub and #rentalhack often are linked to new document templates, video walkthroughs and other tools designed to circumvent the rental application process.
Regular monitoring of these spaces can help leasing teams spot red flags early. Staying aware of what’s trending online gives operators a critical advantage in recognizing and responding to evolving threats.
- 4. Centralize fraud detection across properties.
Most fraudsters apply to multiple properties using the same schemes. But if leasing teams operate in silos, those patterns go unnoticed. Operators with numerous properties should centralize screening data across sites.
Look for shared IP addresses, reused employer names or clusters of suspicious activity. Industry associations and vendor partnerships can also support shared threat databases, allowing the entire sector to respond more quickly.
- 5. Adopt technology purpose-built for sophisticated rental fraud.
As fraud continues to evolve, operators need software that evaluates multiple risk signals in real time and adapts to emerging threats. Look for solutions that combine identity, employment and income verification into a single workflow and provide continuous updates as fraud patterns evolve.
The right systems should support internal auditing and give operators clear insight into how and why decisions are made. Fraudsters are moving quickly, testing new schemes every week. The tools used to detect them must be just as agile.
Meeting Fraud with Focus
The proliferation of fraud resources on TikTok points to a broader shift in how deception is distributed and consumed. What used to take days of planning can now be achieved in minutes, guided by a viral tutorial. For housing providers, the fraud landscape is only getting more sophisticated, organized and widespread.
Fraud isn’t going away, but with the right tools and vigilance, it can be better managed. Invest in smarter screening that protects your properties, your communities, and your bottom line. In a digital era where fraudsters are scaling up, it’s time the industry did the same.
Kyle Nelson is vice president of Strategy for Snappt, a Los Angeles-based software development company, offering services that include fraud-detection solutions for multifamily operators.