Florida joins FTC crack down on rental-listing platform duping consumers

ORLANDO, Fla. – Six states, and the Federal Commerce Fee, are suing a rental itemizing platform accused of paying for pretend optimistic critiques for individuals in search of reasonably priced housing.

Florida Legal professional Normal Ashley Moody mentioned Roomster Corp. and its homeowners, John Shriber and Roman Zaks, additionally charged for entry to phony listings, taking in tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from renters.

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California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York are additionally a part of the authorized grievance in opposition to the corporate.

Roomster’s web site and cellular apps have customers pay a price to entry listings like rental properties, roommate requests and sublets. The corporate claims the listings are genuine and verified, however Moody accuses the corporate of misrepresenting to lure clients to pay for entry to listings that turned out to be pretend.

“The grievance filed right now alleges these defendants deceived customers in search of reasonably priced housing choices by filling the web with pretend critiques and different misrepresentations,” Moody mentioned in an announcement. “The alleged misleading acts siphoned tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from principally lower-income individuals in search of a rental property. I’m proud to take motion right now with the FTC and different states to carry Roomster accountable for his or her wrongdoing.”

To view the grievance, click on right here.

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