Tenant fraud has moved from an occasional nuisance to a systemic risk that landlords can no longer afford to overlook, according to the latest Buy-to-Let Watch analysis from Mortgage Strategy. Fabricated references, doctored payslips, identity theft and rent-to-rent scams are proliferating across the private rented sector, with letting agents reporting a marked uptick in sophisticated fraud attempts over the past two years. For an industry already grappling with regulatory upheaval, tax changes and squeezed margins, this represents a fresh and largely underappreciated cost centre.