Realtor AI "Smart Rental" Scam: Disappearing After Collecting Management Fees, Tenants Are All AI Fake Accounts

Who Gets Targeted

The victims are primarily middle-aged and elderly landlords in tier-one and new tier-one cities who own vacant properties. Most of them are unfamiliar with AI technology, and upon seeing promotional claims like "AI precise tenant matching" and "AI automated valuation," they take them at face value. Their psychological vulnerabilities include a desire for hassle-free convenience and high returns, coupled with anxiety over property vacancy losses and a lack of vigilance toward "high-tech" auras. They easily lose judgment after being presented with seemingly professional AI valuation reports and tenant chat history screenshots, and are guided into paying management fees and deposits.

骗局怎么运作

• Step 1: Fraudsters place ads on search engines and short-video platforms promoting "AI Real Estate Valuation - Smart Rental - Collect Rent Effortlessly," claiming to use advanced algorithms to match high-credit tenants with management fees only half that of traditional agencies. The pages feature exquisite AI-generated property images and forged "rented out" cases to create the illusion of genuine operations.
• Step 2: Landlords click the ad to enter the so-called "Realtor AI" official website and fill in their property address and rental expectations. The website instantly generates a seemingly professional AI valuation report, featuring data mostly derived from inflated public listing statistics, intentionally quoting figures higher than the actual market transaction prices to induce landlords into believing their properties can fetch higher rents.
• Step 3: Customer service collects a management fee under the pretext of "in-depth service," typically amounting to one month's rent, promising it includes AI valuation, smart guided viewings, tenant background checks, and contract signing. Payment methods are mostly personal accounts or virtual currencies without formal invoices; electronic receipts are issued upon collection but lack any corporate attribution.
• Step 4: After payment, the landlord is added to a WeChat group dubbed "Exclusive Butler," where the butler periodically sends photos and chat screenshots of "tenants" viewing the property. These tenant photos are all AI-generated, chat templates are uniform, and no one actually visits the property in person. If the landlord requests a video viewing, the butler declines under the pretext of "tenant privacy."
• Step 5: About two weeks later, the "butler" suddenly goes missing, the website becomes inaccessible, and the WeChat group is disbanded. Only then do landlords realize they may have been scammed, but the funds have long been transferred to personal accounts with no recourse for recovery. Some landlords attempt to contact customer service, only to find the phone number is an invalid number and the email has been deregistered, with the entire company having no record of registration.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 Requiring management fees to be transferred directly to personal WeChat or Alipay accounts rather than corporate business accounts
• 🚩 The website lacks an ICP filing number, corporate entity information is vague, and customer service refuses to provide a business license
• 🚩 AI valuation report data is overtly inflated, far exceeding actual transaction prices in the same neighborhood
• 🚩 "Tenants" never physically visit, providing only AI-generated photos and fixed-script screenshots
• 🚩 Promising "guaranteed leasing" and "guaranteed rent," while contract terms lack liability for breach of contract and refund clauses

真实案例

• According to media reports in September 2026, Landlord A in a tier-one city saw a Realtor AI ad on a short-video platform, paid an 8,800 yuan management fee, and was cut off two weeks later. The phone number left behind was invalid, and the website was no longer accessible.
• In July 2026, Landlord B in a tier-two city was lured by the "AI smart rental" pitch, paying two months' rent as a service fee. Later, they discovered that the photos of the so-called "tenants" were all AI-generated, and image reverse searches showed the profile pictures did not correspond to real people.
• According to public reports, from late 2025 to early 2026, police departments in multiple regions received fraud reports under the guise of "AI real estate valuation," with amounts ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan. The modus operandi was highly similar, uniformly involving the collection of management fees followed by disappearance.
• In February 2021, Nanning Yueshuzhixing Commercial Management Co., Ltd. collected rent from tenants under the guise of property trusteeship management and disappeared without transferring a single penny to the landlords. Landlords and tenants spontaneously formed a rights-protection group, with over 170 members joining. Among them, one tenant paid 18,565 yuan using a "one month deposit, nine months rent" payment method before realizing the rent had never reached the landlord's account. The company was subsequently listed as an abnormal business operation and publicly reprimanded by housing and urban-rural development authorities. (Source: [https://www.ngzb.com.cn/news/103334.html](https://www.ngzb.com.cn/news/103334.html))
• In July 2024, the Economic Investigation Brigade of the Guancheng Branch of the Zhengzhou Public Security Bureau cracked multiple real estate leasing fraud cases. The syndicate used a "high rent collection, low rent payment; long-term collection, short-term payment" model, paying landlords rent monthly while collecting half a year or a full year's rent from tenants in a lump sum. After succeeding, they closed down and fled with the money, defrauding over 700 tenants with a total involved amount exceeding 20 million yuan. The principal culprit, the regional general manager, was sentenced by the court to seven years in prison for contract fraud and fined 30,000 yuan. (Source: [https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1720743254129222.html](https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/1720743254129222.html))

Official Stance

• In April 2026, housing and urban-rural development departments in multiple regions issued risk alerts warning landlords to be on guard against new "AI rental" scams and urging them never to transfer funds into personal accounts.
• In June 2026, the National Anti-Fraud Center published typical cases pointing out that fraudulent methods utilizing AI-generated fake tenant profiles are spreading, and advised landlords to conduct transactions through regular rental platforms.
• In November 2025, a provincial market regulation bureau issued a consumer warning emphasizing that "AI valuation" cannot replace on-site assessments and to guard against false advertising.

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ Maintain vigilance toward "AI rental" services that collect management fees, prioritizing reputable platforms like Beike and Lianjia, and verifying corporate business registration information.
• ✅ Any fee payment must use a corporate business account with formal invoices requested; refuse transfers to personal accounts or virtual currencies.
• ✅ Demand that the other party provide real offline viewings or video calls with tenants, and do not blindly trust photos and text screenshots.
• ✅ Upon spotting initial signs of lost contact, immediately save chat histories and payment vouchers, report the case to public security authorities, and simultaneously report the accounts to internet platforms for banning.