To All Landlords:

Recently we have received several complaints about attempted scamming incidents involving landlords associated with RPI, and the offcampus housing website in particular. In all of these incidents, an unknown person posing as a perspective tenant from overseas has inquired about renting a property in Troy while attending school at RPI. This type of rental scam has occurred on a national level throughout the United States.

Via email with the landlord, the scammer makes arrangements to rent a property and pay for it via check. The scammer asks the landlord if they will forward (via a money transfer service such as Western Union) additional money the scammer sends in the amount on the check to a third party to pay for moving and furniture costs. In all instances of scam occurring, the check from the perpetrator bounced and no money was ever received by the landlord.

We wish to alert all of our landlords to this scam that is going on, and encourage you to be extremely careful in dealings via email. Be suspicious of anyone asking you to send money to a third party. 

If you suspect you are dealing with a scammer, please contact your local police department immediately.

Please take the time to Read a note from a Troy area landlord that contains some details of the scam.

To All Users:

In light of these recent scam attempts, we have limited access to landlord contact information to current members of the RPI community.

On campus usesrs do not need to log in for access, and off campus users can use the Campus VPN, or the public RCS workstations found in the VCC and around campus to access landlord contact information.

If you are a new member of the RPI community and do not yet have RCS access, you can request access by emailing offcampus@union.rpi.edu

Additionally, we will be transfering to an RCSID based authentication system in the near future for members of the RPI Community.