NBC 英语新闻听力精读｜社交媒体租房诈骗

big bedroom with a 1.______ which you’re going to see in a second, which is really cool.

The ads look real and appealing, but experts say beware of apartment hunting on social media apps like Instagram and Tik Tok.

Many of these videos we found are posted by 2.______ 3.______ real agents and 4.______ real listings.

New York real estate agent Mike Busy runs real NYC apartments.

So that’s your video.

That’s my video.

12 million 5.______ on that.

He showed us how 6.______ repost his videos on 7.______ accounts, claiming to have rents far below market rate, all with the intent of luring potential renters to send an application fee quickly before the deal disappears.

This is a two bed, two and a half bath.

So each bedroom has its own private 8.______ bathroom.

My mother had shown me the video and gone, “Mike, this is such a good deal.

I’ll rent it myself.”

My mother’s a very intelligent person, so she fell for this.

Imagine how many other people have fallen for this.

And also, she had assumed that I was trying to 9.______ more business by lying.

So cool.

So I can’t imagine how many people have thought that of me as well.

The scammers say this goes for 1,700 a month.

What’s the reality?

The reality is it’s $12,000 a month.

The problem getting worse.

In just the first five months of this year, the FBI received more than 130 real estate complaints referencing social media sites, with people reporting about $600,000 lost to scammers, about the same number of complaints received in all of last year.

28-year-old Jenny Diaz thought she found her dream apartment in Manhattan for $1,100 a month.

Everything looked 10.______.

They looked really nice and

it made me hopeful.

So she contacted the number in the listing and paid a $350 application fee that she was told was 11.______.

She received this 12.______ but was then asked for another $1,000.

How did you feel when you realized it was a scam?

It really sucked.

especially because at that time, I was really trying to manage my finances and with the possibility of possibly getting an apartment, it just

it broke my heart.

And NBC News reviewed dozens of incidents from around the country of online 13.______ using photos and credentials of licensed real estate agents.

Realtor Shane Boyle says he’s been targeted by dozens of scammers.

2, three, four, five and on and on.

None of these accounts are actually yours.

They’re not mine, no.

But that’s your picture.

They’re all my picture, yes.

And your name.

Yeah, and my name, yeah.

Honestly, I have a 14.______ in my stomach looking at that.

I mean, it’s horrible.

Meanwhile, Boyle receives calls, texts, and emails from people thinking he’s the one behind the account they’re messaging, sometimes even attacking him online.

Here’s one calling you a scammer who stole their aunt’s money on TikTok and blocked her.

You need to rot for what you’ve done.

Wow.

I mean, like, these are people threatening you, insulting you for something that a scammer did in your name.

Yeah.

I try to block that out actually, that’s kind of it get me a bit emotional.

NBC News sent Meta and TikTok links to accounts that appeared to be scams and both companies took those profiles down.

TikTok tells NBC News it proactively removed 97% of content that violated its guidelines on impersonation in the first quarter of this year.

Meta says it uses automated and manual systems to block accounts that abuse the company’s standards, but that scammers are constantly changing their 15.______.

Busy has reported more than a thousand of his videos posted on fake accounts, a task so time-consuming, he had to hire someone to help get them taken down.

He and Boyle say it’s a never-ending cycle.

And how many of these accounts have popped up over the last couple of years?

Let’s say I put down one today, if I report it to whatever social media channel, maybe two goes up the next day.

So it’s like it’s such a whack situation where I’m not sure, I’ve lost count.

All right, with that, Vicky joins us now in studio.

So Vicky, what kind of tips do you have for people to make sure they don’t get scammed?

Yeah, Tom, it’s so important for folks to research the market rent.

Never pay money for a unit sight 16.______ and always look up the real estate agent’s contact information independently of that social media ad so that you make sure when you are reaching out to someone who says they’re Tom, they really are Tom.

Yeah, and Vicky, when you were researching and doing this story, this is obviously something that’s happening here in New York.

Is it happening in other parts of the country, too?

It is happening coast-to-coast, especially in hot rental markets.

These scammers have figured out a way to get people to give over this money because they know that it’s a hot rental market.

We thank you for watching and remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.

balcony

scammers

impersonating

manipulating

views

fraudsters

bogus

en suite

drum up

legit

refundable

confirmation

impersonators

pit

tactics

unseen

1. appealing
2. scammers
3. impersonating
4. manipulating