Street roots
March 1, 2013
Fake online ads intend to dupe would-be Section 8 applicants
BY AARON BURKHALTER
C O N T R I B U T I N G W R IT E R
ection 8 is hard enough to come by,
but those who are duped by fake
websites that appeared Feb. 4 on
Google, Bing and Yahoo may have no chance
at all.
The Seattle Housing Authority opened
registration for the Section 8 lottery Feb. 4.
The same day, a number of fake websites
promising to guide people through the
application process have appeared on web
searches for the agency.
Section 8 allows people making less than
30 percent of the area’s median income to
use a federal subsidy to rent in any
neighborhood.
Google searches for “Seattle Housing
Authority” and “Portland Housing
Authority” brought up three or four of these
links above or to the side of the regular
search results. In small, gray print they are
identified as ads.
When Portland’s housing authority, Home
Forward, opened it’s Section 8 waiting list in
November, it received phone calls from
people reporting that tried to apply for the
waiting list on a site named www.gosection8.
com, only to be asked for a credit card
number. That’s not how Section 8 works,
says Home Forward spokesperson Shelly
Marchesi.
“We assured them that we were federally
prohibited from charging anyone to apply for
Section 8 and told them to apply via our
website, www.homeforward.org.”
The ads disappeared from Google
searches Feb. 11, but remain on Bing and
Yahoo.
A few of the bogus sites, including
housingvoucher.org, look deceptively user-
friendly and professional. It takes about five
S
"W e w o u ld t e ll p e o p le th a t If
th e re a re a n y c h a r g e s
I b
w
I w < o r If th e s ite a s k s
f o r c r e d it c a r d Inform ation^
th e y a re In th e w r o n g p la c e
a n d c o iiW h e s c a n t m e iL "
— SHELLEY MAUCHES!
H O M E F O R W A R D
m inutes for applicants to hand over email
addresses, home addresses, phone numbers
and personal information. After clicking
through a few side offers for grants, Social
Security benefits, credit checks and
personal loans, the website says
“Congratulations” and directs applicants to
check their email accounts for more
information.
The problem is, they haven’t actually
applied at all.
Although housingvoucher.org does not
actually offer housing, the process flashes a
few application tips and warnings for
applicants to act quickly because housing in
“safe neighborhoods” disappears quickly.
“We would tell people that if there are
any charges involved, or if the site asks for
credit card information, they are in the
wrong place and could be scammed,”
Marchesi says. “We also would urge people
to go to their local housing authority.
Housing authorities administer the Section
8 waiting list process. Even in the rare cases
in which housing authorities have partnered
with other organizations for this support,
the housing authority will know what the
application process is in their community.”
People who are tricked by the fake ads
could be vulnerable to spam, computer
viruses and unwelcome mailers. Worse than
that, said SHA spokesperson Michelle
Ackermann, they might miss out on
subsidized housing entirely.
“T h e y ’re n o t even in th e ru n n in g fo r a
chance to get a voucher,” she said.
SHA has filed complaints with Google and
other search engines and asked that the
fake websites be taken down.
They also turned to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint
Center (IC3) for help.
SHA is encouraging people to file
complaints with the IC3 at ic3.gov. If
enough people complain, Ackermann said,
the agency could take action.
Section 8 applicants aren’t the only ones
to get duped by Internet ads. There are a
number of fake websites that claim to be
web portals for the federal Bureau of
Housing and Urban Development and the
Federal Housing Administration.
Leland Jones, public affairs officer for
HUD’s regional office in Seattle, said the
agency and its would-be clients are often the
targets of such scams.
Tricksters have also tried to dupe food
stamp recipients. In Florida in 2011, fake
sites appeared online offering help with food
stamps, and like those targeting SHA
clients, collected personal information but
offered no help.
In Seattle, so far 15,000 people have filled
out applications for the lottery to get on a
waiting list of 2,000. There’s no way of
knowing how many have been led astray by
the ads. Registration closed on Feb. 22.
Reprinted from Street Roots sister paper,
Real Change News, Seattle. Joanne Z uhl
contributed to this report.