If you are looking to find a rental unit on Craigslist, be very careful before you turn over your deposit. As just recently happened in Sacramento, a renter in the middle of eviction decided to raise money for his next abode. Instead of working for it he placed an ad in Craigslist offering to rent the apartment that he was being evicted from.
After getting 4 prospective tenants to give him a deposit and pre-payed rent he was busted. But if the suspect, Michael Blair, had half a brain, he could have been gone and in a new place and those folks would have been out the money. I can not imagine the police working really hard in an urban area to prosecute this sort of crime.
So if you are going to use Craigslist, be smart. Call the local property recorders office and find out who owns the property before handing over a check. These scams are too easy to pull off and getting your money back will be nearly impossible.
Sacramento Police say 28-year-old Michael Blair pled guilty to theft by false pretense after advertising a Condo in North Natomas for rent on Craigslist. He didn’t own it and was actually being evicted.
Michelle Lezark of the Sacramento Police Department says Blair collected thousands of dollars in rent and deposits from at least four people. He’s one of many scammers who use the popular Craigslist website.
Lezark recommends checking with the Recorder’s Office to find out if it’s the legitimate owner and don’t pay in cash. via NewsTalk 1530 KFBK
People i invest with had the same problem with craigs=list and it is a constant place for SPAM!
I have found legit people to buy and sell homes though.
Other scams include renting out homes in foreclosure that have been abandoned. Just helped out some people in Las Vegas that were just notified by the Bank that the home they have been renting out for the past four months was not owned by the people renting it out.
Do people not check into things anymore? Its people like this that give craigslist the bad name… I make sure to report these types of scams to craigs hitmen, craigshitmen.com when I see them, cause they will actually flag down the ads for me.
I have had great success using craigslist. Renters need to be careful and make sure they check out their landlord like they are supposed to check out renters. if it almost seems to easy to get into the apartment that may be a sign that something is not right.
Not only renters should be aware, but landlords need to know…
My husband and I put an ad in Craig's list for a property we own in Kula on the island of Maui. We received an e-mail from a Herod Jin, from London! He stated that he was being sent by his insurance company to open a branch in Hawaii, asked to be sent pictures of the house and wanted us to reserve it for him. We asked for a month deposit ($1800) and he sent a cashier's check for $3000 asking us to give $1200 of this money to a decorator in Hawaii who would fur get the place ready for his arrival!!!
Thank God, my daughter and her husband who live in Santa Fe New Mexico had a friend who lost a few hundred dollars in similar circumstances when the check turned out to be a fake and when we told them about this man, they warned us it was probably a scam! We have not deposited the check and we have not heard from Herod Jin since he was notified what we thought of him. He did write the following:
Thank you for your prompt response. Likewise me, I will stand to
protect myself from all sorts of scams running on the internet but not to mention into this because I will not involve myself in any thing that will jeopardise my ambition. I am A God fearing person and wont decend low in my dealings.(!!!!!)
I have a similar situation with someone claiming to be a foreign student coming to my college. I told the person of my suspicion of being a scam and I told them that if the check cleared thoroughly then I would continue with the transaction. I haven't deposited the check yet, but do you think that I should even deposit it at all, and if I do and if it actually clears should I still continue with the transaction. I mean why would this person in-trust 3,000$ to a person across the world that they have never met before. and if it does clear then what is stopping me from taking the money. That is where people mess up in these scams they should have been greedy and took all the persons money and then find out that the check was bad through their own implications.
I put an add on Craig's list last month and had a response the next day from a person claiming to be an exchange student. He gave me an international phone # and asked that I call his Father at this # to close the deal. He said that he was studying to be a Vet at a college in Montgomery and would send money orders to pay for the rent and deposit and asked that I take out my part of the money and pay the rest to the people that would be delivering his furniture and car. My daughter said that she had heard of several scams that entice you to call an international # and they zap you with a huge bill that is added to your local telephone bill, but cannot be traced. I answered back that his "Father" could call me. I never heard from him again.
I have posted a room online and received an email from someone claiming to look to rent the room for his 23 year old daughter. I sent him 9 questions and this is the response I got back.
Hello,
Thanks for the mail ,I do really appreciate your efforts towards this.You sound very nice i am also an easy going person as well. i appreciate your urgent response towards this and the explanation you have made.i will want you to remove the posting from craigslist so that i can be rest assured that the room is reserved for me,Furthermore, I will like to pay $1000 down as deposit to reserve the house,I appreciate the efforts you have made and also the explanation you have given.I will be arriving in the next two weeks,but i will let you know my exact move in date as soon as you recieve the deposit.I will like to pay the deposit because that really shows that i am serious about this and its secures the room.Please lets meet online so we can discuss better.I am perfectly okay with all what you have said so far,i do not have any questions for now,but i will let you know if i have any as time goes on.As regards payment i will sending you a cashier's cheque or money orders ,so i will be making out a Check out in your name and as soon as the check gets to you take it to your bank or as soon as you cash the check, then i will ask my daughter to get her things,well i need the name as you want it to appear on the check and also the address to send the check to,I would require your contact telephone number as well..I will expect your immediate reply.
Regards
Bradley
I think there is another scam going on in the opposite direction. We have a high end condo for rent for $1,850. In the last week we got two emails from both coasts with a story of how they can only pay $1,000 a month but are very clean, etc. It's just too strange to have both offering the same lowball price, and I wonder what the scam is.
Will they re-rent it or is it some sort of internet "game" to see how many owners they can get to bite in this tough market? Anyone else getting a version of this? Thanks
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
Joe, Awesome to hear that we helped!
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.
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?
DON'T DO IT!!!!! We had the same thing happen to us this weekend!!! SCAM!!!!!
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.
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…
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.
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 ([email protected]) 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 ([email protected]) 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
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
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.
We placed an ad for a house for lease. We recd several emails that were obvious scams, but then we recd one that sounded good…he wanted to lease it for a year, he was a Dr in London and he and his wife and 9 year old daughter were coming for him to work with the EPA for a year. Then he wanted to know if I could meet the furniture rental people,and he would include that in my deposit check. So I let him know that that would not be acceptable,he would need to make my check out to me and the furniture check out the the furniture rental company. I have not heard from him again.
I posted an add in C.L trying to rent my spare room. What I got was a lot of aggravation. I did not fall prey to these nefarious criminals. I am a retired cop and I look at things like this with a eye of suspicion.
Craig List should do something to stop this. It is ruining their business. Western Union should be shut down as well. It is just a criminals' playground.
Davey P
Good Day,
My name is Reina Bentley ,I came across your Advert on craigslist.org and am extremely interested about the place for rent cos i see you are a very well kind hearted and easygoing person to get the place from….Please if you don't mind I will like to have answers to the following questions below:
i)I will like to have the rent fee per month plus the utilities
ii) I will like to have the description of the Place, size, and the equipments in there
iii) Also I will like to know if there is any garage or parking space cos I will have my own car come over
iv) I will also be coming with some of my furniture,that is if it is allowed,like bed,book shelf and shoe's rank etc
v) I will also l ike to know if I can make an advance payment ahead my arrival that will be as a kind of commitment that I am truly coming over and for you to hold the room down for me
vi) If the #5 questions is YES, I will like to know the total cost for the initial move as in first month rent and if you accept deposit
vii) I will like to know the major intersection nearest to your neighborhood. Like shopping mall, bus line e.t.c
LASTLY:I will like to know more about you and also I will like to have your pics as for me to know how you look like.
Here is all I can say about my self for now:
I am 25 years old and I work full time,Monday through Friday and have weekends off except for once a month.I'm from Canada,My Dad is a Canadian Man while My Mom is an Spanish,I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada,but presently i'm in Dubai from there i'll be aheading to Malaysia on a business trip.
Am a female,I am a professional, A Computer Consultant and I deal in various kinds of computer applications and soft wares.I was graduated from University of Malaysia 4 years ago and I have my B.sc in Computer Science… I am not really a sports person,But I do love Hockey Games, I am a very out going person and fun to be with. I do play the Organ and piano, and i have both piano and Organ there at my house. I am not a drinker and I don't smoke and I don't do drugs. I would like to go out with you on weekends and weeknights when I am free. I like going to movies, concerts, plays, I like camping, hiking, bike ridding, swimming, and I love to travel
I am a very dedicated individual who is totally committed to human development, friendly, very trustworthy and value relationship. I am a laid back person, I love traveling, sporting and Enjoy meeting people around the world. I am an easy going person and look forward to meet kind hearted, loving and caring person that is very responsible and understanding, someone I can really get along with. I will take my time to get you one of my pics in my next mail for you to know how I look like, I am sure you will like me.
I will be moving to back to the States fully to live for the rest of my life and start Another space of my own business as a Clothing Consultant.I will be staying in your Place as long as the lease is drawn
I should be arriving to the State before ending of this month.I need answers to my 8 questions above as soon as possible so as to arrange for you to get the money prior for my arrival to retain and consider the room is mine.. I will be making this advance payment ahead my arrival so that you can be rest assured that this is real since I am not in the state presently. If you think I will be a good applicant to you and you are interested in renting the place to me
I await your response asap
This is a new scam going around.. 12/20/10 is when we first responded.. of course we havent sent any money and will not as we know this is not legit.
Hello,
Sorry for my delay in response and thank you for your interest into my house for rent.
I am looking for someone to live in it, as soon as possible, because my company has won the auction for a project, in construction, for a building in Ontario, Canada. I am a civil engineer, so my accommodation period in Canada will be for about 4 years. The renting period is from 1 month up to 1-4 years. I’m the owner of the house.
continued:
The house is furnished, but I have the option of sending all my furniture into storage if you want to bring your own (no extra costs). The rent for 1 month is $400 including all utilities (water, electricity, Internet, cable, parking, air conditioning, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave, and refrigerator). The house is unoccupied and you can move in the house the same day you receive the keys. The only problem is that I’m the only person who has the keys but I hope we'll find a solution. I will not negotiate the price. Also, I take in consideration only those people who are serious about renting my house, to be sure that I don't waist my time with endless discussions. This way, I shall be assured of the serious intentions.
So if you are interested please email me back so I can explain you how the transaction will work.
Regards.
Owners name: Jim Shelton
Fake Ebay Realtors name: Harry Cooke
for the most part you can always tell these scams. 99% of them are from Nigeria. Nobody sends extra money to you, especially in a money order or cashiers check. They are fake. You should show some more common sense than to accept anything like this. Look at their writing, its not even proper. As in they spell certain words with a british twist. Use sir and madam and say things like please accept, bla bla bla. Have you ever written like this? Of course not. I'd love to say if your stupid enough to fall for these obvious scams you deserve it. But I don't think you deserve it, because as a helping human your compelled to help a fella out that is trying to make a home from over seas. But now 9 out of 10 times its a scam. You deposit the money, yes it actually goes into your account for about 2 months before its detected and deemed fraud. Then now what? you owe exactly what the money order amount was for. If you were silly enough to send this clown some money back, that is the amount you lost and he got for free.
This is a warning to those who are honest and trying to rent a house. When you do your searches be careful. My fiancé and I were recently gonna be scammed till we took the extra step and did more research. Please please please do more research!! I don’t want anyone to go through what my fiancé and I went through. Do your research. If it sounds too good to be true, it is! Be suspicious of people who say they are out of the country and want you to send money to them. Whatever you do, don’t! Take the extra step go to the house that’s being rented, check it out. Ask too see the inside and meet who is renting it out. We were recently gonna rent a house we went to the house and there were occupants inside the lady told us she had been there since June and she didn’t know the guy who was trying to rent her house. So please take the extra steps and don’t give out your money unless you know it’s a legit deal.
Well, it's a ll shocking to know that such big and renowned sites can also have scam scandals. Anywasy thanks for making me aware and I was not aware about it before. Nowadays, there are too much scams on internet and it is becoming much more difficult to avoid such scams while buying, selling or advertising online.
I know these postings are a bit old, but I notice a LOT of people ragging on Craigslist for these scams…please know…..it is NOT just Craigslist! It happened to us this weekend with Zillow.com! BUT, I had the sense to check out the situation first and do some investigating! Luckily, I did not send a deposit. It would have been a LARGE amount of money, too! But Craigslist is not the only place! It's not the fault of the site…..some people are just crooks and some people fall for it. ALWAYS CHECK!!!!!
I just caught a scam ad on Craig's List for a house on Maui. You absolutely can a scam artist by their language. It is awkward and they get very friendly and they repeat themselves and make no sense. The reason I caught this fraud is that the rent was only $1300 and I had seen that same house on a realtor's ad for $5900. The low price caught my eye, and I even emailed them and said there must be a typo. I got a ridiculous email back talking about being in West Africa…blah blah blah. They are definitely not American and speak odd. Do check TAX RECORDS. Ask pointed questions. If it sounds funny…it is wrong. If it is too good to be true…it's a SCAM. Be careful out there. Too bad Craig's List can't stop it. So beware !!!
You have to be so careful now-a-days. It seems like every other add especially on craigslist is a scam. Especially with property and rentals. I always make sure that I talk to the property manager directly, and at the same time I am googling them.
Living in both Ct & NY we were looking for a house to buy or rent and when we called on some we realized it might be a scam. The story was “send us a check for $500 for the keys…we have no one to show now but we will send you keys after we get your check.” Being a broker for four decades, I said “send your ownership papers to my lawyer first and of course they disappeared. ”
One must be careful and never give money unless it is an onsite office, you work with a licensed real estate broker, use a lawyer or know the people.
I am happy to see articles that address these issues…It is best to check things out and use professionals whether a lawyer or your broker.
Marilyn Harra Kaye, Pres. MLBKaye Int’l Realty