We have a rental property that we manage for an out of town owner. I had posted it on the rental section of our local MLS and also in the local newspaper. I got a call yesterday from a man who saw it on craigslist. It was on there and the ad said the rent was about half of what we are actually requiring. The email that craigslist redirected to was not valid.
We got an email from another agent today who found one of her properties on a rental/application website. It had been listed without her permission, and ours was on there too.
Has anyone else experienced this?
I have heard of these scams, but to be hit with two in one week just blows me away!

I do not get why someone would do that. What a way to mess things up for you.

sounds like they are building a database of renters to prospect...and since they lower the rent...they probably get a lot of calls....

either that or just trying to make sure you cant rent your units...

either way...very sad

A "database of renters to prospect" or, worse, to SELL.

Looks like a scam, especially today when any task can be automated or outsourced for pennies...

Can you guess how the information was stripped?


-AP

I have clients who were hit with the scam. The imposters post a house that is for sale or rent on the MLS for a fraction of the going rate. They ask responders to fill out a short application and then wire or fedex a small deposit so they can send the keys. I flag them regularly on craigslist. My clients sent $500 which actually doesn't worry as much as the personal information they included on the application that they sent.

[quote=colemacj]I have clients who were hit with the scam. The imposters post a house that is for sale or rent on the MLS for a fraction of the going rate. They ask responders to fill out a short application and then wire or fedex a small deposit so they can send the keys. I flag them regularly on craigslist. My clients sent $500 which actually doesn't worry as much as the personal information they included on the application that they sent. [/quote]

That is scary. I have never heard or thought of this scam, amazing what people will do. I am sure the local authorities will do nothing because it is Craigslist and the internet being the almighty gray area. Thanks for the heads up...

There are multiple cons going on Craigslist. You need to do your due diligence and collect rent/security deposits in advance of handing over the keys.

[quote=colemacj]I have clients who were hit with the scam. The imposters post a house that is for sale or rent on the MLS for a fraction of the going rate. They ask responders to fill out a short application and then wire or fedex a small deposit so they can send the keys. I flag them regularly on craigslist. My clients sent $500 which actually doesn't worry as much as the personal information they included on the application that they sent. [/quote]

That's awful. There are so many scams on Craigslist these days that I avoid at all costs.

We manage over 1100 houses in Metro Atlanta and have seen several of our ads "pirated" off of Criagslist. Now we use www.rentalhomepros.com to post our ads and it can insert a watermark on the photo of each add saying "Go to (our website) to confirm ad" and that has worked very well to stop the ad pirating. We still have the occasional ad pirated but now the prospect contacts us to complain about our ad being priced lower on Craigslist than on our site. We are able to show them the ad they saw on Craigslist for the much lower price was not our ad and they just avoided a scam. It works well.

This is becoming a problem in our area as well. It's a scam and people have lost a lot of money. Renters be very careful, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

This is my experience as well with rental scams. The scam ads usually end up on Craigslist, and they advertise rent for a fraction of the price in hopes that some prospective tenant will send a cashiers check somewhere in exchange for keys to the property. The scam ad usually says something like how "I've recently moved out of the country, and I apologize that I cannot be there in person to show you the property or give you keys. But just send me your cashier check and then you can move in."

i was checking rents in an area and saw a house I recognized, it was an REO on MLS, but on craigslist listed for about half the going rate,,,I sent an e-mail and a couple of days later got an e-mail explaining the house was still available etc, and please send in the application, complete with social security number, etc etc,,,,I think these scammers must be pretty smart to come up with some of this stuff

Hate to dredge up an older thread, but, one of my REO listings is posted in Craigslist FOR RENT!!! A kind person who was inquiring about the ad to the poster alerted me to this problem. I haven't had this happen before. Everyone thinks I should alert the police, FBI, HUD, etc. It's probably from a foreign country so I see no way to 'prosecute'.

Here is the email below and the poster's email address on Craigslist. Posted in Fredericksburg, VA real estate. [some words redacted for privacy]

Craigslist poster's email address: d8rgm-2877523373@hous.craigslist.org

Email submitted from kind person who alerted me:

-----Original Message-----
From: Ghh Xxynm <ghhxxynm@yahoo.com>
To: Barbara [redacted]
Sent: Fri, Mar 2, 2012 2:00 pm
Subject: Re: Fwd: HOUSE FOR RENT AS ADVERTISED ON CRAIGSLIST

Hello,

Thanks for the mail,if you should read my mail properly you`ll see that i mentioned my wife intend selling the house initially but due to some issue i advice her not to sell the house but to rent it so the house is for rent we are no longer selling the house okay,do get back to me with your rental application form filled out so we can proceed further.

Thanks And GOD Bless.

--- On Thu, 3/1/12, Barbara wrote:


From: Barbara
Subject: Fwd: HOUSE FOR RENT AS ADVERTISED ON CRAIGSLIST
To: ghhxxynm@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, March 1, 2012, 3:21 PM

Hello,
I found this property listed with [VA Broker's] Reality and it is on Youtube. How can it be for sale and for rent at the same time? Click the link below to see the house. No thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch[redacted]


-----Original Message-----
From: Ghh Xxynm <ghhxxynm@yahoo.com>
To: Barbara
Sent: Thu, Mar 1, 2012 2:48 pm
Subject: Re: HOUSE FOR RENT AS ADVERTISED ON CRAIGSLIST

Hello,

I am very happy to read an email from you,showing interest in my home.Thanks for your email and I am very glad having receive an email from you regarding my Home, I am Charles R Hull,the chief surgeon for the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and my Husband and I we are the owner of the Gorgeous Home For Rent..Available to move in today In...(Washington MD )3Br/2Bath Single Family Home you are making inquiry of.

Previously, we reside in this particular house with the rest of our family, which are our two wonderful children (Michael and Grace) ,we lived there before and presently we packed due to an emergency transfer to Head the Surgery department of a General Hospital,here in west African and this transfer is temporary but will last for at least 51months (4years+),this house is available for an amount of $800 per month (All Utilities also Included)and a security deposit of $750. I want you to know that the House is furnished, so you can move into the house with your own Personal furniture but the Utilities are intact such as Dishwasher,Dryer, Electric Stove, Fridge, Washer,Air Condition,Sewage,Trash,all included in the monthly rent,as i am in a governmental programmer that sponsors my utilities on monthly basis etc.

Please note that, we are a kind and honest family,that spent a lot on property that is available for rent, so in one accord,we are soliciting for your absolute maintenance of this house and want you to treat it as your own.We want you to keep it tidy all the time so that we shall be glad to see it whenever we are around on a visit.
House Address:[redacted] Fredericksburg VA

You can give my husband a call on +234-816-471-5499 ..

SO IF YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED I WILL WANT YOU TO FILL THE RENT APPLICATION FORM BELOW

RENT APPLICATION FORM.

FIRST NAME:_________?
MIDDLE NAME:__________?
LAST NAME:__________?
SEX:__________?
DATE OF BIRTH:_________?
PROFESSION:__________?
PHONE:
(CELL)PHONE__________?
(WORK)PHONE__________?
(HOME)PHONE__________?
WHICH NUMBER IS THE BEST TO CALL YOU ON__________?
MARITAL STATUS:__________?
KIDS_____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY________
PRESENT ADDRESS:_____________________
CITY:_______________
STATE:______________
ZIP CODE:____________
HOW LONG?___________IF RENTING
WHY ARE YOU LEAVING__________?
IF THIS HOUSE IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU,
HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING?____________?
WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN?______________?
DO YOU AGREE TO PAY THE FIRST MONTH RENT & DEPOSIT BEFORE RECEIVING THE KEYS_____________?
WHEN DO YOU INTEND SENDING THE PAYMENT_____________?
MONTHLY INCOME_____________?
IF YOU HAVE A PET
KIND OF PETS:_____________?
HABITS
DO YOU SMOKE______________ ?
DO YOU DRINK______________?
DO YOU WORK LATE NIGHT?____?
REFERENCE?
============================== =======
Application Comment
============================== =======

Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that we can have it our file in case of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you..
Await your prompt reply so that we can discuss on the rental terms and agreement, please we are renting the house to you base on trust and again i will want you to stick to your words.
So please do not let us down in maintaining this our property and God bless you more as you do this.

Thanks and you are welcome.

Regards.
Charles R Hull

VA Broker. Thanks for posting this. That is EXACTLY what our emails look like when they come in. We have had a few prospective Tenants forward the letters they have received to us and it is almost identical. Crying shame that people actually do fall for this stuff.
I blogged about it a ton last year on our site and we actually did help a few people. Some of them even went so far as to go to our website, find our name, then create a yahoo email address with our name and follow up clients that way, saying they were us. This makes it seem even more legit from the victims standpoint.