Craigslist Scams
Scams Continued......
The Craigslist Apartment or Rental Scam
A lot of you out there are probably going through hard times and are
looking for some cheap places to live. So you go on Craigslist and
look around for reasonably priced apartments. This scam is more
prevalent in big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, but it
can happen anywhere. There are a few variations and some can be bad
for your wallet, and others bad for your health.
The bad for your wallet Apartment Scam:
You see a Craigslist apartment listing and decide to make contact.
If you have read through a few of my posts you already know about
the fake emails so I wont go into that again. So you contact this
potentially fake email or redirected phone number. The person tells
you how great the apartment is and that it is available. So you
decide to set up a meeting and see the apartment. Here is where it
gets tricky. There are many variations, and many ways this can go
wrong. Some are more obvious and some more convoluted. In some cases
you have a middle man attempting to lease out or rent a real
apartment. (In some cases the apartment may not even exist.) So this
middle man gets information from you and the landlord and plays both
sides against each other. This can be very lengthy to explain, but
the crux of the matter is that they will try to get money from you
as a down payment acting on behalf of the landlord or as the
landlord himself. What the end result is, is that when you show up
to move in with your signed rental agreement (lease) the real
landlord will not have any knowledge of getting a deposit from you
and will turn you away.
Another version (the most common on Craigslist) is the one where an
apartment is listed and pictures posted. This pictures are generally
stolen from the web listing of any apartment and may have no
relation to the apartment being listed. The person lists the
apartment (house or condo) for rent and gives you a lengthy
convoluted story about why they had to leave the country and are not
able to show it to you. That they have family problems or are doing
missionary work in Africa or any number of things to tug at your
heart and make you feel that this is a good honest person. You cant
see the apartment in advance but you can send your deposit to them
in another country, or send the money to their property manager or
rental agent in another country, and they will send you the keys in
return. They may even have a lease sent back and forth just to seem
more believable. The entire point is that everything has to be done
in advance and through the web and when you get down to it, you just
lost your hard earned money. If they claim to use escrow companies
or property managers that is just another way to make you feel more
comfortable but the end result is still the same. Your Money will go
by by.
* Never give money to someone over the internet or sign a lease that
is faxed to you or emailed to you.
* Never wire money to rental agencies or property managers over
seas.
* Never rent an apartment or house site unseen (this is the easiest
way to get scammed).
* This type of scam works best with people that are really busy and
try to do everything over the web or by phone.
Here is a video explanation of these types of scams:
