What Spot It actually does

Rental and home listings on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and even Zillow are routinely cloned by scammers. Spot It runs four independent checks and gives you a single trust verdict in under 10 seconds:

Duplicate photo check: reverse-image search across the major listing sites and Google Images. If the same photos appear on a different address (or a different price), that is a clone.
Owner-of-record match: we pull the legal owner from the county appraisal district and compare it to the listing agent or seller name. A mismatch is a yellow flag, not always a scam, but worth checking.
Price anomaly: if the listing is more than 30 percent below comparable sales for that block, we flag it. Real bargains exist, but most sub-30 percent listings on Craigslist are bait.
Known-scammer database: every Spot It result feeds back into a community database. If this exact listing or this exact phone number was reported before, we tell you.

How to run Spot It

Go to remotepropview.com/spot.
Paste the listing URL into the top box. We support Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Redfin, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Apartments.com.
Or, drag and drop a photo from the listing if you do not have a URL.
Click Run Spot It.

You will see one of three verdicts:

Looks legit (green): all four checks passed.
Worth a closer look (yellow): one or two checks raised a flag, usually a benign mismatch.
High risk (red): two or more checks failed, or the listing is in our known-scammer database. Do not send money.

What to do if Spot It flags red

Do not pay an application fee, deposit, or holding fee.
Do not give out your social security number, bank account, or W-2.
If you already paid, file a report at reportfraud.ftc.gov and your local police non-emergency line.
Forward the listing screenshot to [email protected]. We add it to the known-scammer database to protect future renters.

What Spot It will not catch

We are honest about the limits:

Brand-new scams using stolen photos that have not yet been crawled.
In-person scams where the photos and address are real but the person showing the unit does not own it. For these, the Verify Property deeper check that pulls the deed history is the right tool.
Scams targeting commercial leases. Spot It is rental and residential focused right now.

Spot It is free for everyone

We keep Spot It free, including for guests, because the alternative is renters losing security deposits to scammers. Anonymous users get 10 Spot It runs per IP per day. Logged-in users get unlimited runs on every tier.

Power tip: bookmark Spot It

Most rental scams happen between 8 PM and midnight when people are scrolling listings tired. Bookmark /spot so when a deal looks too good, you are one click away from the four checks instead of trying to remember what to look for.