The latest scam on Craigslist

[godinu]

someone is going thru high dollar real estate listings, then listing those homes as "for rent" on craigslist, requiring payment up front to an address usually in Nigeria. Apparently it's working because it's been happening enough to be on the tv news.
Now who would rent a place site unseen and send the money to Nigeria? sheesh.

 

[johname]

Wire money to Nigeria for rent on a home on craigs list, too funny, why would someone do that lol

 

[GF]

This scam has been going around for quite a while now.

One variation is where someone who pretends to be the landlord shows up at the home and collects a cashier's check for the deposit and first month's rent.

The only catch is that - oops! They aren't really the landlord. They're a nice scammer who just walked away with a cashier's check.

 

[johname]

about a year ago someone posted on craigs list that they have been transfered overseas and that everything on their property is free because they cant take it with them, but it turn out to be a prank post. The home owner came home from work to see people on his property taking away his stuff. Some people even argued with him that it was ok to take the things.



i found a link to this http://jonathanturley.org/2008/03/24/craig-list-prank-leads-to-ransacking-of-oregon-home/

 

[nascar59]

well thats just another scam to add to the list down in florida people are listing cars nascar tickets and pets and people are falling for it

 

[Vito]

OMG,

Too funny.
I usually feel bad for people when they are taken advantage of.
But in this case, sending money to Nigeria, for an apt. that isn't theirs...lol
It almost seems as if since they are SO stupid, they kinda deserve it!
I hope that doesn't sound too mean.
I mean common sense should prevail, and if you don't have common sense, well then...Good Luck to ya!
lol

Oh by the way I have apartments for rent in every major city in the US with a population over 50,000 if anybody is interested!

I take PayPal AND NP$$$!!!

 

[monaco]

Yeah...I can't believe people are so stupid as to actually send money to nigeria...esp. with how much these nigerian 419 advance-fee fraud scams are in the news lately.

 

[dgridley]

Good thing to read if you're buying or selling on Craigslist:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

 

[westsider]

Aw, c'mon, do you really, really believe anyone sent money to Nigeria for an apartment? Or anyone gave a cashier's check to a scam landlord on the spot? Really?

I think these are hollow stories news dudes and dudettes made up to keep the tv news viewers happy.

Reminds me of an old NY joke. A guy parked his car on the street. The next day he walked to where his car was parked, except it wasn't there. He searched and searched, but couldn't find it, so he reported it stolen.

Three or four days later, lo and behold, his car showed up where it was parked three days ago. The owner also found an envelope on the driver's seat. Inside was a note: "Sorry I had to use your car. It was an emergency. Just to make it up to you, here are two free tickets to a Yankees game." The car owner was very happy. So he went to the Yankees game.

When he got home he found that his apartment had been broken into and cleaned out.

Urban legends.