BBB Tip of the Week

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers a rental assistance program that provides safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and those with disabilities. To receive assistance, eligible people join a waiting list through local housing authorities.

Scammers have been creating websites that mimic local housing assistance programs, where they collect personal information and ask for an up-front fee to join the wait list. Along with being victims of fraud and potentially identity theft, eligible people also often miss out on real housing help.

Under the voucher system, those eligible pay a portion of the rent with the voucher covering the rest. To take advantage of this scenario, scammers pretend to have Section 8 rental properties available. They promise a rental property if the renter pays his portion of the first month’s rent by wire transfer or prepaid debit card. Once paid, both the money and the rental disappear.

BBB offers the following advice for those looking for housing assistance through HUD programs:

• Whenever you are looking to participate in a government program, the best place to start is with a government website that ends with .gov.

• For public housing programs, visit http://portal.hud.gov.

• On the HUD’s website are links to legitimate local authorities: the Association of Washington Housing Authorities at www.awha.org/contact.html and Spokane Housing Authority at www.spokanehousing.org. In Idaho visit http://1.usa.gov/1e5HUbE.

• Housing authorities do not charge fees and will never require payment by wire transfer or prepaid debit card.

• To provide Section 8 rentals, landlords have to qualify with local housing authorities.

• Housing authority personnel don’t initiate contact by calling or emailing you. If you receive unsolicited contact from someone claiming to be with the government who wants to help you with housing, it is a scam.

Carefully guard your Social Security number, bank account information and debit and credit card numbers. If you have initiated a search through an online search engine or are responding to an unsolicited call or email, do not share your personal information.

If you are the victim of these types of scams, you can report it to HUD by emailing hotline@hudoig.gov, to the FTC at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant .gov and BBB at http://www.bbb .org/eastern-washington/ or by calling (509) 455-4200.

By Erin T. Dodge, BBB editor