In our continuing effort to protect our users by exposing online housing scams, our team posted an alert about an identity theft scam last week that went above and beyond to target persons looking for low income housing. The scam website pictured above stole Affordable Housing Online’s logo in an attempt to make it appear that it was our own website that published the false information.
UPDATE: As of late November, the page has been taken down by the hosting website:
Last week, the scam website stated that the Chicago West Suburbs Housing Authority is openings its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waiting list. On the bottom of the page was a form that asked for personal information, including their name, Social Security Number, and a copy of their photo ID. The web page also said that “the Housing Authority of the City of Aurora, IL, Bolingbrook, IL is accepting pre-applications.”
Bolingbrook, IL does not have its own housing authority, but the Aurora Housing Authority took immediate action to alert its clients and residents.
As we have identified in previous scam alerts, the first red flag is that there is no HUD Public Housing Agency (PHA) called the Chicago West Suburbs Housing Authority. And whenever you input private information into an online form, it’s very important to verify that you are sending it to a legitimate organization.
Our scam alerts in the past have stated that you can trust legitimate sources such as our website, or a PHA’s website. While this is still a true statement, it is always important to look at the URL (the website address displayed on the top of your browser) for your own security. This is the best way to determine that the website is actually run by the organization that’s identified on the page.
For example, the URL of the scam website identified above is section8list.net. All of our users should be aware that Affordable Housing Online only publishes our content under the URL https://affordablehousingonline.com/. If a website displays our logo, but the URL does not begin with https://affordablehousingonline.com/, it is not our website that is publishing the information.
Affordable Housing Online is in no way affiliated with the website section8list.net, and we took action against the scammer as soon as we became aware of the issue.
What is more concerning is that our actions did get the web page removed, but visiting the scam URL now redirects users to our own Chicago Housing Authority page. The scammer seems to be using this tactic to try to make it appear that we associated with their website.
In an article published by The Beacon-News, the Aurora Housing Authority confirmed that our organization is legitimate, and not involved with the scammer, but we have contacted other nearby PHAs to make them aware of this issue.
It is possible that the scammer may use the same website again to commit fraud, and other scammers may attempt a similar strategy in the future. So, it is important that our users and their friends and family can identify this scam, and avoid being victims of identity theft.
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