Snappt, a fraud detection and income verification solution for the multifamily industry, has acquired Trigo, a proptech firm specializing in the verification of rental payment history. The acquisition, which was backed by a $50 million committed facility from Hercules Capital, will expand Snappt’s platform to help property managers make faster and more confident leasing decisions.
“This moment marks a major leap forward for Snappt,” says CEO James Hyde. “With the backing of Hercules Capital and the strategic acquisition of Trigo, we’re not just expanding our platform, we’re accelerating our vision for a fully integrated trust infrastructure that meets the evolving needs of property managers. These combined milestones enable us to deliver faster, more secure leasing decisions while setting a new standard for accuracy and transparency across the rental journey.”
According to Snappt, the acquisition of Trigo will deepen its capabilities in applicant trust and enables it to support one of property managers’ most requested proof points: verified rental payment history.
“We’re incredibly honored to bring this verification of rent category to multifamily. I think 10 years ago reference check and rental payment history were commonplace. Unfortunately in this time of centralization, that reference check and rental payment process has gone to the wayside,” says Kyle Nelson, vice president of corporate strategy. “Through the acquisition of Trigo, we believe we have cracked the code. If we can give operators that verified data point at speed, we believe we have solved the last mile of establishing trust between the applicant and the operator.”
Snappt’s acquisition news comes at a time when application fraud continues to be a persistent and evolving threat to the multifamily industry. According to the proptech firm’s 2025 Mid-Year Fraud Report, fraud rates held steady at 6.5% during the first six months of the year, with nearly 50,000 fake submissions found across over 767,000 rental applications.
From January to June, the top cities with the highest volume of fraud included Los Angeles and Las Vegas with rates of 7.9%; Houston and Orlando, Florida, at 7.7%; and Atlanta and Dallas at 6.9%.
“The biggest thing we continue to see is there is no precise concentration of fraud in a specific geography. It’s everywhere. It’s in the Southeast, in the Mid-Atlantic, and on the West Coast,” notes Nelson. “And we are seeing it grow in areas where it hadn’t been common like the Midwest and Northeast.”
Nelson says that no asset class is immune from fraud either, with it running the gamut from high-rise to garden-style communities.
“We’re seeing fraud by far targeting lease-ups in new development much more than in stabilized assets,” he adds. “Those new developments are offering concessions, and those concessions are a magnet for fraud.”
Snappt found the top three fraud methods used during the first half of the year were:
• Manual document manipulations. This involves altering documents, such as modifying dates, adjusting fonts, and inserting false information, and accounted for the most prevalent form of fraud with 64,034 documents found using this tactic;
• Template farms. This is an operation that mass-produces fake documents, with 24,949 documents found using this tactic; and
• Advanced fraud rings. This involves tampering with the underlying code of a document and often targets multiple properties at once. Approximately 21,500 documents were found using this tactic.
“The biggest thing from my perspective is the volume that advanced fraud rings are prevalent. This is no longer a first-party fraud issue,” notes Nelson. “It’s evolved to more sophisticated fraudulent activity. This is organized crime at its finest.”
Snappt conducted surveys at Apartmentalize 2025 in June, finding only 7% of respondents who feel very confident that their current screening process catches fake applications. Twelve percent reported they are doing nothing to prevent fraud, while 41% said they are catching it through manual document review.
Nelson says property managers should watch for red flags such as same-day move-in requests and prospective residents trying to rush the process. In addition to the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered proptech solutions, he advises some age-old practices like reference checks and rental payment history can be additional tools that property managers can utilize to determine fraudulent applications.
“However, a lot of these template farms are made with AI—you have to have the same level of tools available or you’re a sitting duck to some degree,” adds Nelson.
