Rental Scams on Craigslist and Other Sites

It may come as no surprise that the crooks have figured out how to scam people looking for a home to rent online. 

Basically what happens is the data for a home listed for sale or rent is copied into a bogus Craigslist ad (unbeknownst to Craigslist of course).  Often the listed rent is way under market to attract attention.  Prospective tenants make contact and are told to wire the money for the security deposit and first month’s rent.  When the tenant shows up at the home the owners (if it isn’t vacant) have no idea what is going on.  Identity theft occurs when the prospective tenant emails the rental application to the fake “owner” thus giving them their social security # and other private information.

In our area this has been happening on Craigslist for sometime.  Most agents are aware of the situation and are savvy to what’s going on, but even then it can be hard to catch if your listing shows up on some website somewhere as a tool for scammers.  A home I had listed for sale and rent a couple of years ago appeared on Craigslist at a much lower rent (without my information to contact) – fortunately I caught it and had it removed, but it was impossible to trace who placed the ad.

This same scam is being done on other rental sites such as forrentbyowner.com.  So the bottom line is: beware and whenever possible use a Realtor® for all of your real estate needs.

For more information go to: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/july09/housingscam_072909.html