Scams abound on the Internet and Craigslist is no exception. In fact, scammers most likely post on there more than any place else online. I almost fell victim to one of these scams but I went by the old adage first that “if it sounds or looks to good to be true then it probably is.”
What am I referring to? One of several rental scams on Craigslist. Although Craigslist.org may be a great place to sell stuff it isn’t always the best place to buy stuff and it is definitely not always the best place to look for rental properties.
This is what my doing a Yahoo.com search shows “researchers estimate that a quarter of all Craigslist rental postings are scams.” Often people fall victims to these scams before they are discovered by Craigslist or someone who can flag the post.
Here is my experience. I saw a listing for a two bedroom house listed for rent at $500 a month here in Lincoln, NE and with all utilities paid. It sounded like a great deal so I thought that I would investigate. Of course from the very beginning this sounded too good to be true.
I contacted the supposed property owner via Craigslist and he got back to me with the location of the property. I went and checked out the outside of the property. I then sent said “supposed” owner a message asking about when he could meet with me and show me the inside of the house.
He responded with a text message via phone that basically read “I am a retired US veteran and live in New York City. I am unable to make it out there. If you send me the $500 deposit and $500 first month’s rent, I will send you the keys.”
I let him that I refused to do so unless I was able to see the inside of the house. He said it just wasn’t possible. I definitely knew something was wrong.
I did some research and found the actual owner of the house was a local real estate company whom I contacted. The actual cost for renting this house was $1200 a month and utilities were not included. The real estate company had just become aware of the situation and were flagging the listing for removal. Basically, what the scammer had done was to copy their listing from another site and make some slight changes to it.
This is an example of a cloned real estate listing scam. In clone scams, a scammer copies another legitimate rental ad from a different rental website. The cloned ad typically has the same street address. It also sometimes has the same description as the original listing.
Craigslist as of now posts at the end of all the real estate listings posts the following: “Avoid scams, deal locally! DO NOT wire funds (e.g. Western Union), or buy/rent sight unseen” The Avoid scams, deal locally opens to the following webpage: https://www.craigslist.org/about/scams which has several tips for avoiding scams. My only concern is for people who are quick to find housing which they think is a good deal and overlook what is said there because they are in a hurry. The best rule of thumb like I said is to always go by the adage “If it’s too good to be true then it probably is,” and to always do “due diligence.”
For more about common real estate scams on Craigslist and how to avoid them go to How to Avoid Common Craigslist Rental Scams.