I am the owner of Fireball Approves, a private investigation agency, specializing in the prevention of rental scams.  Recently I have noticed an increase of foreign profiles commenting on US rental posts and their profiles are voluntarily locked.  This is not available in the US. It is impossible to determine exactly which regions of the world where this is available. Allow me to explain why this is a problem.

Millions of American's place ad's on Facebook in search of rental properties.  There are thousands of Groups for regions serving rental searches and rental owners. As a goodwill gesture, I joined multiple groups and when posts are made in search of a rental, I monitor the responses.  

The first five responses are generally from the Bangladesh region and the majority of the profiles are voluntarily locked.  These posters include links and my research has confirmed that many of these links are malware.  This only makes sense - what purpose would a person have from Bangladesh to reply to a US post regarding a rental?

I have saved a multitude of unsuspecting consumers by pointing out the inconsistencies of the responders.  I have tracked down numerous fake accounts by finding the original profile.  Do you know how many Facebook has actually closed down, even with the evidence I provided? One - this means there are multitudes of scams still happening while I am typing this. These scams are devastating; resulting in lost money and leaving our country homeless.

Back to the voluntary locking of profiles - I believe that this ability should be for all or none.  Why are foreign countries responding to American rental ads and locking their profiles?  This puts America at a disadvantage and it needs to stop!  I have voiced my concern to Facebook Security executives on Linked In and was not taken seriously.  Hopefully, this will get the attention it deserves!

Examples ahead have all posted on US rentals with links.