It was one of those rare Saturday mornings when I was taking time off to cook a meal for a family gathering (you know the kind, when the in-laws are coming) when I had an urgent call from my client -- "Lela, someone showed up at my house at 7:30 this morning saying that they had sent in their money and wanted the keys. Then another couple showed up at 8:30 and said the same thing!"
We had my client's home listed on Craig's List as a property for lease -- complete with photos and text. Some creative and fraudulent soul had copied our information and re-posted it on Craig's List for $800 a month less! Obviously a 4 bedroom/2 bath home for $1300 a month sounded better than one for $2100 a month.
Apparently, once the unsuspecting victims answered the ad on Craigslist, they received this response:
| Hello, Thanks for your email and interest in renting my house..I am the owner of the house you are making enquiry of...Actually I resided in the house with my family, my wife and my only daugther before and presently we have moved out due to my transfer from my work now in Warsaw,Poland. Presently my house is still available for rent for $1,300 USD (rent already includes utilities).Moreso Now, i'm currently in Lagos , Nigeria for an international christian follower's crusade.. Pls i want you to note that,i am a kind, honest and trustworthy man and also i spent a lot on my property that i want to give to you for rent,so i will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this house and want you to treat it as your own, It is not the money that is the main problem but i want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad to see it neat when i come for a check up.I also want you to let me have trust in you as i always stand on my word.This is the address of the House (I deleted the house number and street name , San Marcos, CA, 92069 ).. It has a dramatic entry foyer with ceramic floor. Extremely spacious rooms throughout with lots of big windows...nice and light! New neutral paint and some newer carpet..Very quiet, low traffic area. New fridge...I believe its absolutely a perfect home for you and your family.Utilities include Water,Trash,Sewer,Gas SO IF YOU ARE REALY INTRESTED I WILL WANT YOU TO FILL THE RENT APPLICATION FORM BELOW RENT APPLICATION FORM. FIRST NAME:__________? MIDDLE NAME:__________? LAST NAME:__________? PROFESSION:__________? PHONE: (CELL)PHONE__________? (WORK)PHONE__________? (HOME)PHONE__________? KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________ PRESENT ADDRESS: _____________________ CITY: _______________ STATE:______________ ZIP CODE: ____________ HOW LONG? ___________IF RENTING WHY ARE YOU LEAVING__________? IF THIS HOUSE IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU, HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? ____________? WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________? IF YOU HAVE A PET, NAME OF PET: _____________? KIND OF PETS: _____________? HABITS DO YOU SMOKE ______________ ? DO YOU DRINK ______________? DO YOU WORK LATE NIGHT? ____? Looking forward to hearing from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you...Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the keys to you,please we are giving you all this based on trust and again i will want you to stick to your words,you know that we have not seen yet and only putting everything into Gods hands,so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this... The house is available for rent at the moment so you are free to move in as soon as you wish to...A Deposit of $1,200 (which happens to be the Security Deposit) is required before moving in...Feel free to call me for more information at 011-234-703-492-6797 or +234-703-492-6797 Stay Bless |
We notified Craig's List at abuse@Craigslist.com of the fraudulent listing and within a few hours it was gone. We filed a police report, but didn't have the names of any victims. The deputy gave us an incident number and told us that if more people showed up to have the occupant of the house ask them to stay until the sheriff could get there and take a report to help them get the money back they had sent off to Nigeria or some paypal account or goodness knows where. However, we have noticed that every few days, the fraudulent ad is being re-posted to Craigslist.
When I brought this up at caravan last week -- another broker said listings her office which had posted in the MLS for sale (NOT on Craigslist) had also been copied, and re-posted on Craigslist as being for lease.
According to the deputy we met with, once anything is posted on the MLS or on Craigslist, it is in the public domain. It's easy for the bad guys to copy the information and re-package it to suit them.
Solutions? We've notified Yahoo.com of the phony email address this guy is using and are awaiting their response. Craig's List has been cooperative at removing the ad every time it's flaggged, but I am disappointed that it isn't filtered out before re-appearing. We plan to let every listing client we have know what to do is someone shows up at their door with the song and dance "we sent in our money, where are the keys?" We may need to take the further action of making sure none of our listings are showing up on Craigs List in ways that we don't intend for them to appear (by regular review). We've also reported the incident to IC3 which stands for Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).
For this property, we also have made sure that it has our signs visible and flyers outside with the correct lease amount. Having correct flyers onsite has directed several calls to me that were "I saw this on Craigslist for $1300 and now your flyer says $2100, what's going on?"
Let me know if you have seen this in your area and what solutions you may have........
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