A TikTok page racked up thousands of views by posting videos of more than 50 houses across Milwaukee, claiming they were available for rent — except the homes weren't for rent at all. Some were for sale. Others had already received offers. And at least one homeowner says he had no idea his house was even being advertised until a stranger showed up asking about it.
The scheme came to light after Contact 6, the investigative team at FOX6 News Milwaukee, found the TikTok page listing dozens of Milwaukee properties and set out to check whether they were legitimate. Reporters visited 13 of the houses featured on the page and found that Milwaukee homeowners and real estate agents confirmed nearly all of them were not actually available to rent. Roughly half of the properties Contact 6 visited had a for-sale sign planted in the front yard.
One of those properties belonged to Richard Hickles, whose Milwaukee house — four bedrooms, one-and-a-half bathrooms — had been listed for sale in June. Hickles told Contact 6 the property was “100% for sale,” yet a TikTok video claimed his house was available to rent for about $1,100 a month. When he flagged the video, he says a scammer on the other end insisted the house was for rent anyway. Hickles said he was renovating the home for three months and was not aware of any victims who had filled out the rental application and actually paid money, though he had no way of ruling it out.
Real Estate Agents Say Their Own Marketing Videos Were Hijacked
Real estate agent Porsha Bates said the scammer had lifted her own video of Hickles's house directly from her TikTok page and repurposed it to look like a rental listing. Bates said this is a pattern scammers use broadly, turning real estate agents' home-tour marketing videos into fake rental posts to draw in renters searching for deals. Milwaukee real estate agent Lamar Walton had a similar experience: his house on the scam page was also for sale, and it already had an offer on it, he said.
The fraudulent page didn't just post fake listings — it monetized them. The rental application tied to the page required a refundable $52 fee before applicants could move forward, and the scammers demanded money upfront before renters could even see the properties in person. The listing contact required applicants to complete the application before they could tour a house, a sequence that consumer advocates say is a major red flag. Scammers behind the page accepted peer-to-peer payments through apps including Zelle, Chime and PayPal, platforms that offer renters little recourse once money changes hands.
How Wisconsin Law Draws a Different Line
What the scam page demanded stands in sharp contrast to what Wisconsin law actually allows. Under the state's Administrative Code, landlords are legally barred from collecting earnest money or deposits until a specific unit has been identified, and background or credit check fees charged to applicants are capped at actual costs of up to $25, according to the Wisconsin Legislature. The scam's $52 charge was already double that legal ceiling, on top of a listing price that undercut the market. Hickles's $1,100 advertised rent fell roughly 35% below the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Fiscal Year 2025 fair market rent benchmark of $1,701 for a four-bedroom home in Milwaukee County.
Landlord-tenant disputes were already the single largest category of consumer complaints in Wisconsin last year, generating 2,620 written complaints and more than 5,200 hotline calls, per the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. The agency has separately warned that online rental scammers routinely clone legitimate property photos to target renters across both the Milwaukee and Madison metro areas, a pattern consistent with what Contact 6 documented.
TikTok Removed the Page, But Not Before Reach Built Up
Contact 6 contacted TikTok directly about the scam page, and the platform took it down in less than a day. A TikTok spokesperson said the platform's guidelines prohibit scam attempts, and the company noted it allows users to report suspicious content while also removing scam videos proactively and offering guidance on identifying scams. Still, the page had already accumulated thousands of views before it came down, and Hickles said his own attempt to flag the video hadn't gotten TikTok to remove it — Contact 6's outreach is what finally worked.
The Federal Trade Commission has been tracking this exact pattern nationally. Between 2020 and 2025, the agency logged nearly 65,000 rental scam reports, and the FTC's Lisa Schiller said 43% of consumers who searched for rentals online ended up encountering a listing that turned out to be false. Total reported losses from rental scams hit $65 million over that same stretch, the FTC found. Adults aged 18 to 29 are three times more likely than other age groups to report losing money to a rental scam, according to the agency's analysis, a vulnerability tied to how heavily younger renters lean on social platforms during their housing search.
What the FTC Recommends Before Sending Any Money
The FTC advises rental seekers not to share personal information early in the process and to be skeptical of listings priced well below market rate. The agency also recommends researching nearby rents for comparison and searching the rental address on Google before engaging further, steps that can surface a property's actual for-sale status before a fee changes hands.
Milwaukee's case fits a broader pattern Hoodline has tracked as scammers migrate listing fraud onto video-first platforms. A July Hoodline report detailed fraudsters copying active listings from sites like Zillow and reposting them on TikTok at below-market rates to rush victims into wiring money, while an earlier Hoodline investigation documented Atlanta scammers using Cash App and Apple Pay to pull fraudulent application fees from prospective tenants. The tactics differ slightly by city, but the core exploit — a stolen video, a cheap price, and an urgent request for money before anyone sees the property — keeps showing up.
