Of all the things that can go sideways in a home sale, Eric Thune did not expect an impostor.
He had put his Los Gatos home up for sale and moved to Santa Barbara before it sold. Then, a scam unraveled in his South Bay backyard.
“I got a text from my pool guy, saying, ‘Do you know there’s people at your pool?’ Obviously, I was quite shocked. And said 'no, I didn’t,'” Thune explained.
His security camera snapped photos of a family traipsing to the backyard. Thune's pool guy put one of the strangers on the phone.
“I said something to the effect of, ‘What the heck are you doing on my property? You’re trespassing.’” Thune said. “There was some shock in his voice and he said, ‘No. I rented this house on Swimply.”
Swimply made a splash as a startup five years ago. It lets people rent pools, decks, backyards, and places to hold parties by the hour. “Some owners on Swimply are earning over six digits this year,” the CEO told CNBC in 2021.
Somehow, his pool ended up on Swimply for $46 an hour. An impostor — with the username “Eric Daniel” — pulled photos from the real Thune's real estate listing and apparently enticed the family to book. Thune informed them they’d both been duped — and told them to leave.
“I think he was just as shocked as I was,” Thune said. Next, he tried to contact Swimply too — get them to pull down the impostor’s listing.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“But nothing happened,” Thune said.
He contacted NBC Bay Area Responds. We contacted Swimply. We also booked a swim at his house. But the bogus Eric cancelled on me and stopped responding when I revealed I’m a reporter. Within 24 hours, Swimply responded. A rep said it refunded the strangers who had booked his pool and took down the bogus listing. Swimply said it removed it “in a timely manner.”
Thune disagreed. “I don’t think 24 hours is a timely manner,” he said.
He had one, fundamental question for Swimply: “How could somebody post a listing without verifying that they actually own the property?”
We wondered about that, too. Swimply told us: “Any prospective host can create a listing on Swimply. We want it to be convenient for hosts to get started on our platform.” It said his case was, “a very rare instance in which our processes did not correctly identify a fraud attempt prior to a customer booking.”
Thune wasn’t buying it. “I don’t believe that one bit,” he said.
To test out some of what Swimply was telling us, we enlisted one of our interns, Grace. We asked her: “Do you own a home?” She said, ”no.” Then, we asked if she would like to try to list someone else’s for us. She said, ”yes.”
We picked a place 300 miles away: a colleague’s home in L.A. Swimply’s setup page recommended we just grab photos from Zillow. Within just a few minutes, “Grace’s Rooftop Party” went live.
Swimply told us new, unverified listings aren’t immediately visible to users or bookable. But Grace’s was immediately visible and bookable.
So, how many times did Swimply ask Grace if she actually owned the place she listed for rent? “Not once,” she said.
Swimply told us its “fraud detection processes” can remove bogus listings “within 24-48 hours.” We waited 96 hours, then checked in on “Grace’s Rooftop Party.” It was still up. Did Swimply ever ask Grace if she actually owned the place? ”Not once,” she said.
Simultaneously, our colleague in L.A. listed our boss’s pool in west San Jose. Same result: no verification, yet instantly listed and bookable. Our listings were up for weeks, with no verification. We shared our results with Swimply. It acknowledged some “fraud slipping through our checks.” Now, it says it is making changes: new host verification phone calls, additional ID and bank info checks, plus a new button to report suspicious listings — like Thune's.
“It’s a monstrous liability,” Thune said. He says you should look out for an impostor trying to profit from your home. ”Put a camera in your backyard,” he recommended.
Here’s another idea: try to pull down any photos of your home that an impostor might lift from real estate websites like Zillow or Redfin. Ask your real estate agent to turn off “syndication.” Or, contact the real estate site directly.
