There is a Craigslist Scam that we want to make you aware of. Con artists have been targeting renters to try to collect rental deposits on homes they do not own.

Homeowners list their homes for sale with real estate agents, who will list the homes for sale in the MLS and also with public search websites, which allow individuals to query homes for sale via the Internet. The scammers find homes listed for sale on these public search sites, copy the pictures and listings verbatim, and then post the information onto Craigslist under available housing rentals, without the consent or knowledge of Craigslist, who has been notified.

After the posting is listed, unsuspecting individuals contact the poster, who is the con artist, for more information on the “rental.” The scammer will state that they had to leave the country very quickly to do missionary or contract work in another country, and many other excuses and were unable to rent their house before leaving, therefore they have to take care of this remotely. The “homeowner” (scammer) sends the prospective renter an application and tells them to send them first and last month’s rent to the scammer via Western Union. The prospective renter is further told If they “qualify,” they will send them the keys for their house. Once the money is wired to the scammer, they show up at the house, see the home is still for sale, are unable to access the property, and their money is gone.

For these reasons, we strongly discourage our sellers from placing their listing on third party websites, along with the company policy of adding a watermark to all of our listing photos. This watermark adds a “digital stamp”, so to speak, letting consumers know where the photo came from – and is quite common on most websites. HomeServices of Nebraska takes Internet security very seriously, which is one of the reasons we keep our listings strictly on our company websites – where we can control the content, and ensure the watermark is applied. While this certainly does not guarantee the safety of the listing data, it’s much more safe than a listing sent out to many different third party sites, sites that many times retain the data after the listing has expired (check the terms of use carefully!).

See the e-mail correspondence below for an example of this with one of our HomeServices listings.

Consumer Inquiry…
From: Consumer inquiring about the property
Subject: 123 Main home
To: Craig’s List Scammer (using one of our agents names)
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 11:58 PM
I saw this ad on craigslist and was a little surprised about the price of $600 for rent I would love to see the place if possible.
Give me a call at 555-1212. My name is Mary Consumer.

Thanks and have a great day!
Consumer

Spammer’s response….

From: Craig’s List Scammer (using one of our agents names)
Subject: 123 Main home
To: Consumer inquiring about the property
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 6:10 PM
Hi,
How are you? Thanks for the interest in my House, my house is still available for rent and is located at 123 Main Street, Lincoln, NE 68506 quite and safe I only need someone that can take good care of the house at my absence because right now am not around i just secured a contract in London .of which i will not be back until after 2years. And am here with the house keys and document, i tried to look for management before i left but couldn’t get any in time. If you know that you have a good reference and a good credential you can email me back to secure and occupy my house at my absent.

General house description:
3 Beds, 2 Bath Square Footage (Approx) 1,708 sq. ft. Large 3 bedrooms, 2 bath level on Liberty Point. Natural landscaping on this huge corner lot. Great price There is also high speed wireless internet access.Pets acceptable (deposit required) which is $450,References a must. Hope you are Okay with the rent fee of $600 per month, get back to me asap because i need a tenant urgently and i can also forward the application form to you, if you are interested. Have a nice day.

Consumer responds to scammer and asks for walk through…
From: Consumer inquiring about the property
Subject: 123 Main home
To: Craig’s List Scammer (using one of our agents names)
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 1:02 AM
Everything sounds really great. Would it be a possibility to have a walk through on the house? I would love to fill out a application but my husband and I would like to take a look at it first. I would be happy to do all this quickly since you are on a tight schedule. Just let me know when would work best for you..

Thank you!

Spammer’s response to walk through….

From: Craig’s List Scammer (using one of our agents names)
Subject: 123 Main home
To: Consumer inquiring about the property
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 7:07 PM
Alright presently am in London you can drive by and have a view at it But how can you see the inside when the key is with me here, well if you don’t mind i can email you the pictures of the inside for you to see how beautiful the inside his i hope you can understand, well kindly let me know if is okay with you that way then i will email them to you together with the application form as well.

Consumer responds to scammer again…
From: Consumer inquiring about the property
Subject: 123 Main home
To: Craig’s List Scammer (using one of our agents names)
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 1:11 AM
I will drive by and take a look at it tomorrow and the pics of the inside would be great!

Spammer’s final response before Broker reported it to the Lincoln Police Department and the Nebraska State Attorney General’s Consumer Fraud Division….

From: Craig’s List Scammer (using one of our agents names)
Subject: 123 Main home
To: Consumer inquiring about the property
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 7:23 PM

Ok, just let me know if you decide to rent the place tomorrow so i can secure it for you.

The spammer did send pictures (from the Agent’s MLS listing) the following day.

This is a classic Craig’s List scam and one of the reasons we don’t do advertising there. Please contact your Broker if you have any questions or concerns about this topic.

Authored By: Connie Hain

Edit (1/30/2010): Cynthia Garton emailed me to point out how this further reinforces the need for the traditional sign in the yard (thanks Cynthia!):

Shows importance of having signs in front of your listings. When people do drive by and there isn’t a sign it just helps a scammer carry off a rental scam. If your seller doesn’t want a sign you might point out how it protects them from scammers using the house in a rental scam. I don’t see how scammers can tell people to drive by and take a look if there is a sign in front of the house.