Wed 19 Mar 2008
More real estate scams on Craigslist
Posted by Marlow Harris under Real Estate
[12] Comments
I received an email last week from a guy inquiring about an ad he saw on Craigslist:
Are any of these units for rent? There is currently an ad on Craigslist for one of these units, http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/apa/601697121.html
Is this a real ad? I’ve replied to a few ads recently that end up being fake, and I thought I’d check with someone that seemed legit before I bothered this time. It would also be good for you guys to know if someone is out there misrepresenting your property.
Thanks!
-Drew-
I clicked on the ad link and what I saw, instead of a rental house, was one of my “For Sale” listings being advertised as a rental house. It had my verbiage, my photos, but someone else’s contact information.
Weird!
So I wrote a little warning on the Seattle PI site and before I knew it, dozens of people started writing in and calling complaining they too had been victimized by the same scammer!
King 5-TV did a short interview about the scam and then the phone started ringing off the hook. Apparently, after the potential tenant contacts the Craigslist advertiser, the criminal dance begins, with plenty of emails going back-and-forth until the potential tenant give in and mails the guy a check, supposedly to get the keys.
There’s no telling how many potential tenants have been victimized, but I imagine that at least one person must have sent the guy money for him to keep it up. And it’s not just my properties he’s “stealing”, as I got a call from Kim Knowles at Windermere that her Blaine Street listing is also being advertised “for rent’. Which, she tells me to tell everyone, it is NOT!
The things that make the internet so cool and accessible also make it susceptible to criminal abuse and scams.
If those scammers spent as much time working at a regular job or legitimate business as they spend thinking up and executing these petty crimes, they’d probably be rich.
Email transcripts from Craigslist scammer
12 Responses to “ More real estate scams on Craigslist ”
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[...] Locale | Jackson Hole Real Estate Blog wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt I received an email last week from a guy inquiring about an ad he saw on Craigslist: Are any of these units for rent? There is currently an ad on Craigslist for one of these units, http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/apa/601697121.html Is this a real ad? I’ve replied to a few ads recently that end up being fake, and I thought I’d check with someone that seemed legit before I bothered this time. It would also be good for you guys to know if someone is out there misrepresenting your property. Th [...]
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[...] Real Estate Scams on Craigs List [...]
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[...] and contact information with a for rent label and the scammer’s contact information. Here is a post which indicates that this has happened. I believe at this point that the original listing has a [...]
We had a similar warning sent to us a couple of weeks ago
It’s crazy the internet methods these scammers use. It doesn’t seem like it would be that much harder to legitimately get a job as an internet marketer.
When I post rentals on Craigslist I always get emails from “models” from overseas who are going to be coming to “my city” for business… They just want my bank account number so they can “send the security deposit” – They don’t care what the apartment looks like, they just want to send security deposits.
Craigslist does their best to monitor spam, but sometimes it gets through.
I’ve had a few problems from ads I have had on craigslist. I had a woman respond and say she wanted to see one of my houses, then had about a million questions, then actually relisted an ad with my house, my pics, and my number, but listed it at half the price we were asking. Crazy people out there!
This is another problem with making listing information available without regard to the listing agent/company. The public is being mis-informed that having a listing in as many places as possible is helpful. Agents are being misled that this is the only way business can be done. These actions are further affecting how people view the real estate industry. Agents need to start realizing that credibility is worth more than having pictures of listings on billions of websites.
Craigslist is such a fantastic site, but there are so many scams. It would be great if there was a legit way to report these so that you know they will be addressed. I have encountered multiple nigerian fraud scams through the site.
My advice to RE agents is to be proactive; search Google or the local Craigslist for phrases used in your ads, and flag ads that are fakes. I found this blog entry after going to see a house I’d seen on CL, only to find out that the supposed “rental” had a RE For Sale sign on it — I called the agent, who said it’s not for rent and he has no idea who the person is who put out the CL ad. I did a quick search for the email address of the person whose contact email was on the ad and lo and behold, he had another similar ad all the way across the country. I think until CL puts a stop to this, agents have to be proactive and protect themselves and their communities from these scammers.
There is an email address to use if you receive any of the scams from Nigeria. scam@efccnigeria.com I have used this many times and have never been bothered again by that scam. I hope this helps some of you.
Marcos Guiza is a craigslist scammer – he will attempt to buy your goods, send you an overnighted check from a falst bank account that is thousands of dollars MORE than what you asked for. then he wants you to send him teh change – 100.00 plus themoney for your item. he will say his secretary made the mistake.
he will say that his representitive will come by to pick up the item after you send him the tracking and money order info for the CHANGE he wanted back ( Thousands of dollars ) your bank will not tell you the money is not real till much later and you will be robbed of thousands of dollars.
Old scam, i suggest you let him send the check – it costs him about 20 dollars every time. then never cash it. jusy keep it or take it to the police. if enough of do this to all the scammers they will have to quit!