I am a professional landlord and I prescreen all of my tenants prior to approving them.  I do extensive searches on them as well as call their references.  I use a service that provides reverse search cell phone number to find out who I am calling before I make the call.  I don’t want to find out I am only talking to a friend instead talking to the previous landlord for instance.  Imagine what a fool I would look like to any potential tenant if they thought they could trick me so easily.  I don’t think it would be easy to collect much rent from them.