According to the National Multifamily Housing Council, 93.3% of apartment owners and operators experienced application, financial and identity fraud. Deception and dishonesty mean higher operating costs, which can be passed on to honest tenants through rental increases.

Caren Maio is CEO and Co-Founder of 100, a multifamily fraud prevention software platform. She is also a member of the newly launched 100x, an initiative allying multifamily and technology experts to help combat the fraud issue.

Maio answered questions from Connect CRE about fraud in the sector and ways to reduce it.

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Connect CRE: What is the definition of fraud?

Caren Maio: Fraud in the multifamily housing sector is defined as deceptive practices aimed at gaining unauthorized access to properties, avoiding financial obligations and/or exploiting systems. It encompasses a wide range of activities, including theft, falsifying IDs and documents, and misrepresenting personal background and financial information.

It’s important to note that rental fraud isn’t just a paperwork problem. It’s a trust crisis because individuals intentionally misrepresent themselves to game the system.

Fraud isn’t new, but the scale and sophistication of it is. What used to be isolated incidents have become systemic threats. Putting it another way, the cost of a single eviction due to fraudulent activities is upwards of $25,000. Add regulatory blind spots, financial pressures and online communities teaching people how to break the system, and you’ve got a perfect storm.

Fraud is arguably the biggest, most expensive challenge facing multifamily operators, and it’s growing more complex by the day.

Connect CRE: Why is that the case?

Caren Maio: For many reasons. Regulations limit how deeply we can vet applicants. Post-COVID economic strain has made financial desperation more common. Rents are rising faster than incomes. And now, step-by-step guides to faking documents or identities are shared widely on social media platforms. It’s not just a property-level issue; it’s an operational, financial and reputational risk that touches every corner of the business.

Connect CRE: What methods have been used to combat fraud in the past?

Caren Maio: Historically, fraud prevention has been more art than science. Leasing teams leaned on gut instinct, paper trails and fragmented tools that were never designed to handle today’s threats. In the last decade, we’ve seen point solutions try to tackle parts of the problem, but without an integrated, industry-wide approach, they’ve fallen short. You can’t solve a modern problem with yesterday’s toolkit.

Connect CRE: Can fintech and AI help?

Caren Maio: Absolutely. Technology gives us scale and speed, which can be utilized to automate what used to take hours. It helps us flag patterns invisible to the human eye and verify information in real-time. We can borrow best practices from industries that have been here before — like biometric checks from aviation, dynamic risk models from finance, and seamless guest vetting from hospitality. The tools exist. We just need to use them in the right way.

Connect CRE: What else would you like to add on this topic?

Caren Maio: What we’re up against isn’t a string of isolated incidents; it’s an organized, fast-moving threat that’s exploiting the fragmentation of our industry. Every operator fighting solo is a gap in the system. Every point solution in a silo is a blind spot.

That’s why we created the 100x alliance. We’re bringing together leaders from multifamily, PropTech, FinTech, aviation, and hospitality to share intelligence, align on solutions, and stay ahead of fraud before it hits. In a world where bad actors are coordinating, we have to move faster and smarter — together.

An version of this article appeared earlier on ApartmentBuildings.com.