In the "What will they think of next" column comes this newest scam technique by one RaymondMike, scammer, on Craigslist.

So here's the story.

On Friday I listed this wonderful Lawrenceville Home For Sale. As with all my listings, I put a flier on Craigslist. I use an automated service provided by my loan officer for this. I didn't think much of the calls to rent the home since I get a lot of those on other homes, but this last call caught me.

Here's the call:

"Hello, this is Joshua."

"Yes, We'd like to see 333 Brook Lea Cove."

"Fantastic, where did you see it?"

"Well, that's the thing, is it even still available?"

"Of course, we just listed it today!"

"At $1,000 a month, that sounds too good to be true. "

STOP!

Hmm, well something must be wrong if I'm getting a few phone calls about rental then this. So I check out craigs list and ther it is, in all it's glory. An ad to rent out 333 Brook Lea Cove in Lawrenceville for $1,000. It has my photos, my description, but none of my contact information. In fact, there was no contact information other than the craigslist e-mail.

When I finally received this e-mail the puzzle started to take shape:

Mr Jarvis: I am in the process of trying to find a rental property in Gwinnett County. I have come across several ads on Craigslist, however this one struck me as odd. I have contacted the "owner" of this home to arrange a viewing. I decided to look into this matter a little further and determined it was a scam. I have copied the email here for you to view. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions. Its amazing to me the lengths people will go to steal from others. I obviously am in no postion to be buying a house so why rip off the ones that already have nothing?? I have not let this man know I am aware of this scam he is pulling. I was not sure if you would want to contact him or the owner of the home, I would think this is fraud and maybe you can catch him.

Of course, the e-mail this loser sends out has scam written all over it:

From: "raymond mike"
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 22:37:08 +0000
Subject: Re: House

"Hello, thanks for your reply,acttualy the place is for sale and its going for $179,900.Am on transfer to UK LONDON,that was why i handed it over to an agent to sale the place cause i will be away for the next 4 to 5 years.The place has been on sale for 8 months now,every month i pay the agent $400 for their services and mentenace fee.As am sending this email to you, my wife is in the hospital surfering from canser. That is a whole lot of money spent you know,can you imagin that i contacted the agent asking them for a loan of $20,000 with an intrese, that when the place is being sold, they can deduct it from the money and send me the balance that my wife is in the hospital and i needed money.

I was turnned down,i felt so bad that i began to ask my self lots of questions that why are people so mean.This is an agent i handed over my propertis to sale and i pay for their services what do i get in return,nothing.Then i say to my self why being so foolish for 8 month when you know you can rent out the place for a responsible home than paying $400 every month for good 8 month and no buyer yet. I must tell you am not happy with those agents at all.Well if you are still intrested in renting the place and you know you can take good care of the place for while am away cause i have changed my mind about salling the house,its now for rent.I will be glad to rent it out to you.If you want to view the place you can contact the agent

Call Joshua Jarvis: 770-374-4667 Note you will not tell them that the place is for rent cause i dint inform them that i want to rent out the place.You will tell them that you saw the place in www.backpage.com and you are intrested in the place so you want to view it.I just cant wait to rent out the place and stop paying $400 every month to some agent that dont have human feelings.I will be expecting your reply soon"

You know if you are going to scam someone, fine, but you don't have to throw someone under the bus at the same time. Basically, this person was trying to collect security deposits.

So from this E-mail and instance I can tell you to look out for a few things:

1. If the home for sale on craigslist has NO CONTACT information, it's either a very ill-informed home owner or it's a scammer. Both are extremely hard to deal with.

2. In keeping with #1, if the home for sale or rent deal looks too good to be true... It probably is, no matter how good the market is.

3. If you get an e-mail concerning Africa or the UK run.

4. If you see an e-mail that utilizes the words, "acttualy," "intrese," "salling," and who could forget, "dint," - RUN!

5. Agents, this is a good reminder that if you aren't on Craigslist or Backpage, then someone else might be.

With a home like this, it's easy to see why someone would use it.

Be safe out there and don't, under any circumstances, try to confront these scammers. They are cowards in my book, which is all the more reason to leave them alone. Just educate yourself.