Lakeland resident Robin McBride found a house she liked on the site, and emailed the owner who was listed. She got a long response saying he was a missionary in West Africa. She could have the house, he said, for a $500 deposit — if she answered an odd list of questions about several details, including her pet’s name and her work hours.
She did her own research and found out that the scammer was using a name of a Polk County real estate agent and that the house was for sale, not for rent.
McBride’s instincts saved her, but several others actually lost money.
Real estate agent Bill Miller with Remax Paramount Properties started receiving several calls from people demanding their money back. A 3,000-square-foot house he was representing had been posted on Craigslist without his knowledge and the scammers were asking a modest fee of $400 to hold the house. The money was to be sent by money order or wired.
Miller emailed the owner who was listed, posing as a home renter, and received a response from someone claiming to be a soldier serving in Afghanistan worried that his house might be foreclosed. Three of Miller’s properties have been used to scam renters.
“I think they fall victim to it because they (scammers) price it below market value and they give a story that’s very desperate,” he said.
According to the FBI, such rental scams have been on the rise since the housing market collapsed and more houses face foreclosure. The scam is a variation of aNigerian scheme that’s been used for decades.
“Scam artists are always looking for new ways to separate you from your money, and with the wealth of information and data on the web, it’s easy for scammers to put this type of scam together,” said G. Stacy Sirmans, a real estate professor and chair of the Department of Insurance, Real Estate and Business Law College of Business at Florida State University .
The fake owners often say they are out of the country, he said, and especially like to claim to be missionaries or on some humanitarian trip.
Perpetrators search legitimate sites listing homes for sale or rent and then post ads with sweet deals on Craigslist. Scammers might ask the renter to provide personal information, such as credit history and Social Security numbers, subjecting them to potential identity fraud or theft of more money.
Judy Pepper, president of the Better Business Bureau of Central Florida, said anyone can fall victim to these scams, especially if they’re inexperienced in looking for homes. Sometimes the scammer is the same person over and over, she said, and other times, it’s someone just trying to make a quick buck.
Other scams come in the form of people asking for information via email to run a credit check before showing a house.
Or in Cody Neff’s case, the landlady hadn’t paid her dues for months and knew her house was in foreclosure, but still put the house for rent on Craigslist.
Neff paid $2,400 for the first and last months’ rent as deposit and rent, but now has to find another place only two months after moving in.
“She definitely knew that she wasn’t paying her bills before moving me in,” Neff, 25, said. “It’s a tough situation.”
Susan MacTavish Best, a spokeswoman for Craigslist, said in an email that the organization goes to great lengths to prevent scams from reaching users.
“Scams that do reach the site are generally quickly identified and removed by user flagging,” she said.
The organization also provides safety tips to users on its site.