CraigsList Scam-BEWARE

It has been brought to the Craigslist and internet world that there is a scam going around by frauds who are acting as homeowners trying to rent out their properties. These fraudulent people are getting information from listed rentals on other sites and auctioning sites, in turn advertising them on Craigslist and other sites as their own. They ask the prospect for money to give information on the home and in turn the keys will be given after the money is received. But low and behold, the keys are never received by the prospect and they are out of a possibly large amount of money. In some cases, the homes that are being listed were never being rented to begin with.

This issue is something that is going on all around the country. The scammers are not only targeting homes that have been on the rental market previously, but they are also going after homes that are listed on Auction sites. In a lot of cases, the prospects have been smart enough to actually go look at the property before they give any money to the “renter”. It has even been reported that the prospect gets to the property and there are people living in the home. Others have not been so fortunate, just falling into the scam.

How can you be sure it’s a scam ad and not a real rental? There are a few red flags to avoid when looking for rental properties on Craigslist. These ads are usually place by people overseas and I have noticed that the ad is often times misspelled or doesn’t have proper grammar. Another thing that is a key that it is a scam, there is usually a foreign contact phone number also.

These types of ads are pretty obvious as long as you are aware that they are out there. You need to be very careful of every rental ad you look at, and make sure to ask for the physical address so that you can go make sure it is a legitimate rental before you fork over any info such as social security number and driver license, as they can perform identity theft against you, in turn costing you thousands of dollars and stress. Another thing experts are suggesting is that you only deal with agents or sellers and the renters directly. If you don’t feel 100% safe using craigslist, consult an agent for all of your rental needs. This way they can search prorperties that are legitimate and listed in the MLS system. This can save you countless hours of stress and money issues.

If you are someone who has experienced this type of scam already, report it to your local law enforcement agency to assure that it doesn’t happen again and most importantly so you won’t be held liable for any damage done to your credit. Knowing that these scammers are out there, is your first step in preventing this from happening to you and educated people you know on it too. The more people that know, the better off we will all be.

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