Comments on: Warning: Craigslist Rental Scam

By: Anne Lackey

Anne Lackey — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:51:21 +0000

As a professional property manager, we hear all kinds of these types of stories from other property managers and from prospective tenants. Scams like this one are the one of the best reasons to use a professional PM company whether you are an owner or a tenant. In GA to manage another person’s property, we have to be licensed real estate agents. This is very easy to check by going to the state’s real estate commissioner’s website. As a tenant, you can easily confirm that the firm is legitimate. Property Manager’s have to hold tenant funds in escrow accounts, so they are safe. For owner’s it allows us to qualify a tenant for you to make sure that you are getting the best quality tenant for the best rental rate. We cut through all the scammer’s because we have techniques and tools to prevent that from happening.

By: autumn

autumn — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:36:33 +0000

I’m in a middle of a rental transaction, where I just place a $500 deposit to hold the condo because I won’t be moving in for another month. I did look at the place, it’s local. However, the gentelman showing me is a family member of the owner that lives in a different city in the same state. Should I be concerned?

Thanks for any advice.

Autumn

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:04:48 +0000

I found this luxurious Manhattan apartment add in craigslist, it all seem too good to be true, but I thought they were just desperate due to the economic crisis. A person by the mane of Dmary Jane (djmarry11@yahoo.co.uk) got in contact with me and sent all the information for the rental agreement, after investigating the information provided by this person (building name, unit number and address) , results showed that this is all a “big scam” ; since there is only one building with this name in Manhattan; which is situated in a different location, the apartment number 14 does not exit and the building concierge does not know anything about the contact (djmarry11@yahoo.co.uk) or the apartment owner (ALPORT COOPER) whom requested a money order or transfer to foreign address (106-110 BELGRAVE ROAD, LONDON, SW1V 2BJ). Even the pictures that this criminals used to promote their scam were copied from a real estate website that is promoting the condos for sell; compare the two websites, address and pictures :
Condo living (http://www.condo-living-west.com/nyblog/2008/09/m127-new-york-city-apartments-at-127.html)
Craigslist.org (http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/vac/1294883156.html)
it is a shame that Craigslist a network for online advertisement which purpose is to help the community is now been used by con artist to scam honest people.
Sincerely,
Rick

By: Kel

Kel — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:43:12 +0000

Yeah- unfortunately for me I did not research this until after the fact. One of them got me for 500 bucks. Said it was a security deposit and he would send me the keys after I sent it via money gram. Then I went to the house and there was a woman living in it already- so I called the guy back- and he said that she was his current tenant and she would be moving out. He then asked me to send the first months rent before he shipped a lease agreement and I kind of became worried so I called him back again and asked him to send my security deposit back to me. And of course….he hung up on me. Word to the stupid…dont look for a house on friggin craigslist. Damn Nigerians.

By: Annoyed

Annoyed — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:42:17 +0000

I had the SAME experience while I was trying to rent my apartment as Erin (above) on craigslist. i had 2 people send me the following emails. They were from a JOHN CONROY “Canada” and one JENNIFER COLE “Australia”
__________________________

Hello,

Thanks for your prompt responses and am okay with the price and
explanations, I am Jennifer Cole, 28 female, from USA but lived and
has been working in Australia for few years now, I am a graduate of
Westwood College, CA, where I studied Marketing. I worked as a sales
Representative in Adelaide, Australia. However, I will be coming to US
later this month or early next month to advertise some of our
products. I am very happy for your reply that shows the kind of person
I am thinking of renting from and how kind you are..

I will want you to send me some pictures if you have any so I can
forward it to my Boss to see the room because he is presently based
in England. The payment option is by a certified check and its not a
problem at all because my boss will be highly responsible for all the
expenses. All i have to do is to confirm the availability including
the utilities and then get it sent to him including the information’s
in which the payment will be issued to, So all I require is for you to
send me your..

FULL NAME
FULL ADDRESS
PHONE

I await this information from you so that my Boss can make payment for
the rental fee and any security deposit needed to be paid in advance.
Pls note that your rental fee and my travel agent fee will be sent
together to you So, you can get back to my travel agent who is in
United state with the balance of the money via western union in order
to get my flight ticket booked for me to be in the USA asap. If there
is any application to be filled, I will fill that when am with you
there. I will want you to consider the room/apt/house rented. I will
also pay you an additional $100 to get the advert deleted from
craigslist. Hope to hear back from you.
Thanks
____________________

When I wrote her back asking for her “travel agent” info or the name of the company she works for, I received this response:

Hello,

Am not working for any company. I am coming down from Australia…
Ok? Get back to me if you still want to lease the apt for me.

Regards
_______________

What do these people want? How frustrating…

By: MN Short Sale Realtor

MN Short Sale Realtor — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:00:28 +0000

Craigslist rental scams abound in the Twin Cities Minnesota area. Typically, “landlords” who are not the owners of the property (typically the bank is the owner), try to rent out the property. Once you give them your money, it is nearly impossible to get back. I have a list of all the Minnesota county websites and the phone numbers you can call to verify the property owner and foreclosure status of the property on my site.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:11:38 +0000

I have a concern about a recent ad posted on Craig’s List for a condo for rent for a ridiculously low rental rate. My sister is looking to relocate to Philadelphia. A typical high-end 2×2 in the Rittenhouse area goes for approximately $2200 plus parking for approx $200. She found an ad on Craig’s List for a 2×2 condo in the same area for only $1100 and includes all utilities, furniture and two parking spaces. The owner of the condo lives in the UK and can only make the transaction through a title Insurance Company since she does not know anyone in Philly to manage her property. The owner of the condo claims that she just needs to get it rented and is the reason for the low rate. Has anyone heard of any scams through First American Title Insurance Company? The thing that makes me even more skeptical is that they want personal info to get things started. She can not even see the property before submitting an application. Seems very fishy to me. She gets the keys and doesn’t pay for ten days at which time she is able to make a decision to pay and stay or return the keys and walk away. All transactions MUST go through this company or the deal is off! But it’s primarily a title insurance company…hmmm??!! Any suggestions?

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:03:44 +0000

We almost fell victim to one of these scams ourselves but quickly realized it was wrong, then we posted our own rental add and have had 4 different scams try to use our info! This has to be stopped. One way is to imbed HTML into your posting, it is impossible to copy it if you do that.

By: Tom Royce

Tom Royce — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:41:23 +0000

Joe, Awesome to hear that we helped!

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:19:20 +0000

Hi,
I wanted to thank everyone for posting information here. I have rental property in South Jersey and I have it listed on Craig’s List. As it turns out, I was sent an inquiry about the property from one Herold Jin. I did a Google search on him and came across this information. Thank you goes to Mimi Gabriel for posting this here. I have submitted the information to the FTC for their records and I’m going to let Mr. Jin (if that’s really his name) what I think of him.
Thanks again!
Joe