Rental discovery apps cover the gamut from cars and tools to homes but now the FTC has filed suit alongside California and five additional states against roommate-finding and rental listing app Roomster over allegations of fake listings and reviews. That’s based on recent reports detailing the lawsuit.
Specifically, the app stands accused of aiming to scam low-income and student renters. That’s via its listings, predominantly geared toward users who needed shared accommodations, and a subscription fee charged to users in order to facilitate messaging between potential renters and landlords.
According to the FTC, California, and Attorneys General in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York, many of those listings were unverified. Worse, at least some subset of listings were allegedly fabricated wholesale on sites such as Craigslist and others. All with the intent of luring in potential users.
It wasn’t just fake listings on Roomster that drew the ire of the FTC
Now, fake listings aren’t the only allegation listed by the FTC either. Although the use of fake rental properties and allowing scams to proliferate are bad enough on their own. That’s if the allegations bear out in court as the agency looks to crack down on fraudulent activity in apps.
In addition to fake listings and fabrications — placed alongside authentic listings for private rooms and low-cost rentals –, the FTC alleges that Roomster relied on fake reviews of the app itself. And that’s on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The reviews, according to the suing parties, were intended to draw people in as well. All while making it more difficult for potential renters to find legitimate lodgings.
An investigation into the company and its app found, in fact, that Roomster paid for fake reviews outright. Reportedly paying for at least 20,000 fake positive reviews. With Roomster co-founder John Shriber reportedly directing review sales business AppWin to produce “lots of 5-star IOS app reviews.”
The executive reportedly attempted to garner the reviews in a bid to help the app gain status as the top roommate-finding app. At the very least within the respective app markets.
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