{"success":true,"data":{"id":"rental-application-deposit-phish","label":"Fake landlord claiming a rental application was approved and requiring first month rent plus security deposit to hold the unit before viewing — rental advance-fee fraud; no legitimate landlord requires a deposit before an in-person viewing and a signed lease.","description":"Fake landlord or property manager claiming that the target's rental application has been approved and requiring them to send the first month's rent plus a security deposit immediately to hold the unit, with the viewing of the unit to be arranged only after payment is received — rental advance-fee fraud. No legitimate landlord or property manager requires a deposit or advance rent payment before the prospective tenant has viewed the property in person and signed a written lease; \"your application was approved, send deposit to hold the unit, viewing arranged after\" is a consistent FBI IC3 and FTC rental fraud pattern that exploits housing scarcity anxiety. Distinct from rental-lease-renewal-wire-phish (existing tenant lease renewal / deposit wire) and rental-deposit-refund-phish (deposit refund pretext) — this targets the rental application approval / pre-viewing deposit / hold-the-unit / viewing-arranged-after pretext. Detection: application approved + send/wire first month and security deposit + hold the unit + viewing arranged after payment vocabulary + no List-Unsubscribe + no In-Reply-To + not protected sender. Trash score: +4. Source: GC1-R28; FBI IC3 rental fraud advisory 2025; FTC rental scam consumer alert; CFPB rental deposit fraud patterns.","tier":"danger","category":"phishing","isThin":false}}