S.F. apartment rental scam nets guilty plea

John , it's amazing that there would be so many that would be so gullible and hand over money without even checking ownership. Fortunately it sounds as if this lady's deceptive practices are stopped.

Thanks for posting this, I used to get scams.  I will post one next time.  :) Kristine

We have seen scammers taking our listing pictures and info  from MLS and posting them as rentals.  Not a good situation to have going on.

Around here, and I imagine elsewhere as well, our MLS data is frequently pirated then put on Craig's list as a rental.  We don't hear about it until the people call the office to check on why there iss a for sale sign in the yard of the house they were thinking about "renting".  I always wondered if there were people who fell for this scam and apparantly the answer is yes!  Too bad!

I like Craigslist to view certain items but whenever I am going to buy I go to Ebay. Better platform and you can see others experience before you pay for something you have to entrust others to follow through on their end. Someone with neg feedback or just a few star ratings you may want to avoid and those with hundreds or thousands of great transactions your pretty safe knowing you will get what you paid for.

Thanks for sharing this as I know it will help others who may be going into this. Quick advice go to your county website and see if the person you are speaking to is even the recorded property owner!

Wow! i have herd of rent scamming but this takes it to another level. Some people do the crazies things and then think they wont get caught..

Hi John - Thanks for sharing. Educating people about the scams and people looking to take advantage of others is really important. It is frightening to learn how many of them are out there - and it hurts people who are legitimately trying to rent out a place. 

Yes, there are quite a few people trying the same thing; thank God she was caught & hopefully some will get their money back.

This has been around in various forms for years.  In the "olden days", rental prospects used to be able to get keys from the office and view properties on their own.  The scam THEN was to make duplicates, put an ad in the paper and RErent the property and collect as much move-in monies as possible and then leave town before the new renters were the wiser....

I always see this type of fraud when time get tough.  I ran the Los Angeles County Homeownes Fraud department more that 30 yrs ago and they were doing it then.

I've had one of my listings for sale reposted on craigslist as a rental. For a long time, I couldn't understand why I was being contacted to rent the home for the weekend. What???

Unbelievable that a scam like this can go on..............glad she was found guilty and hope those people get their money back.