<prompt> Human: I apologize if this isnt PF material, but Im not sure where else to ask. My wife and I are very interested in an apartment. Weve rented before so Id like to think we know the ropes. One thing that struck me as strange is that the prospective landlord of this apartment wants to run a credit check on us which I agree is normal but through their mortgage bank. I was okay with this until they emailed us the credit report authorization form. This form is almost verbatim to this: It only talks about applying for a mortgage and nothing about an actual credit check. When I emailed them asking if we can just submit our own credit report, they said Do not be confused. The person who checks credit for us is a mortgage broker. This is the only form we have. Am I just being paranoid or is this normal?  <response>: No you are not being paranoid. this sounds like a scam to take out a mortgage in your name. 