I hae written several posts about rent fraud and Craigslist. Unfortunately, I continue to experience the Craigslist Rent Fraud syndrome. It goes something like this:
Phone rings:
Sally: "Hello, Sally English, Atlanta real estate - How can I help you?"
Caller: "We saw a hose for rent at 1234 Main Street Atlanta on Craiglist and we want to take a look inside."
Sally:"Hmmmmm, I don't usually list rentals. I am guessing you are looking at a fraudulent rental ad."
"I do have a house listed for sale at 1234 Main Street but the propery is not for rent."
Caller: "Well we saw a rental listing on Craigslist and we emailed for information. We got an email ack asking us to wire moey to Africa and we got a little suspicous. The rent also seemed too good to be true."
"We googled the property address and found your for sale listing with identical phots, and property description. Oh, but you had a phone number listed and the reantal listing did not."
Sally:" Yes, it is too good to be true. It;s a scam. DO NOT send them any money or give them aany personal info"
"Please notify Craigslist it is a scam and also consider making a police report."
Caller: "So do you know where I can get a rental at that price in that location"
Sally: "No, you are looking at a scam listng that was priced low to get your attention and lure you into sending in a deposit" "Good luck with your rental search. Consider looking at properties on Realtor.com"
The AJC ran a similar story. Check out this great excerpt:
"Rent fraud is a common con game aimed at a new crop of potential marks thanks to the housing crisis and the Internet.
Scammers lift an ad from media such as Craigslist, Trulia.com or ajchomefinder.com, substitute fraudulent contact information and then place the ad on websites. They wait for renters to contact them, then try to steal identities or cash down payments made through untraceable wire transfers.
The scammers are frequently outside the U.S., and the crime is difficult to investigate or prosecute, said Gabby Beltran of the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego."
Go to AJC.com to see the rest of the article: http://www.ajc.com/news/rent-fraud-a-metro-1153683.html
Hello Craigslist:
Time to step up your security measures. This scam has cost too many honest foiks thousands of dollara!
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