Craigslist ads can be scams

By PHIL MULKINS World Action Line Editor - 9/25/2009


Dear Action Line: I found a rent home on Craigslist and they want $1,500 up front. The ad is from some out-of-state person who can't show the home to me. What do you know about this? — M.T., Tulsa.

Online classifieds: The Tulsa Better Business Bureau warned Sept. 15 that house renters should be wary of scammers on Craigslist when searching for homes to rent.

Phony rental property ads surfacing nationally are swindling money from respondents. Many would-be renters think they have found "the perfect home" online when they have actually found the "perfect" scam, said bureau president and CEO Rick Brinkley.

Tulsa close call: Several of these cases were reported in Tulsa this year, he said. In one, a woman found a Tulsa house on Craigslist with the typical pitch: "We're Pennsylvania doctors and our Tulsa aunt died. We want to find a nice family to rent it to, as she loved it so. Fill out our application, with your Social Security number, and wire us the first month's rent and another month's rent as a security deposit."

The woman put off sending the money and drove by the home, finding a "for sale" sign in the yard. She called the real estate agent and learned that the house was not for rent and that the Craigslist ad was a scam.

She had served notice to her landlord that she was moving and had withdrawn the money for the new rental. If she hadn't seen the sign and had sent the money, her family would have lost its home, its money and been homeless.

Sure, I'm the landlord: Many renters fall victim to this online classified rental ad. Victims have been told by supposed landlords to wire deposits of $1,400 or more to receive keys to the rental homes. When victims ask to look at the homes before sending money, they are told things such as, "No, I'm out of the country and can't show it."

That knocking sound: As a result of such scams, many homeowners have answered knocks at their doors to find people planning to move into their homes. Often the shocked homeowners have their houses up for sale — not for rent — and had advertised on Craigslist. Pictures they had posted with their ads were appropriated by the scammers for their own bogus listings.

Red flags: One warning sign is that a deal sounds too good to be true. Scammers list rentals for low prices to lure and hook out-of-state victims. Check the real estate ads for comparable price listings in the area, and if the rental in suspiciously low, forget it. Determine rent price by dividing home value by 14 and then by 12 for the typical monthly rent.

Another red flag is when the landlord is "elsewhere" and contacts you only by e-mail. Scammers might say they have just been relocated overseas for a job or missionary work — don't believe it.

Sometimes the landlord requires a substantial deposit before handing over the keys or even tells you where the home is. Don't pay a cent before inspecting it, inside and out, and checking its ownership through county land records.

Also beware if the landlord wants "deposits" wired through Western Union or MoneyGram. Wire-transferred funds are impossible to retrieve. Once the scammer has it, it's gone.



Submit Action Line questions by calling 699-8888 or by e-mailing phil.mulkins@TulsaWorld.com or by mailing it to Tulsa World Action Line, PO Box 1770, Tulsa OK 74102-1770.


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Tulsa World Reader Comments
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gregcollier, (9/25/2009 7:18:39 PM)
For a business with this much traffic and this much income, the problems its users encounter day after day, post after post, are really beyond comprehension. They make enough money to fix this stuff, folks – and they refuse to do it! And that’s not all they refuse to fix. Over the last few years, newspapers and television news stories across the country have been reporting stories about victims – from theft to rape to murder – whose only mistake was responding to a Craigslist ad. Note to Craig: telling us that “most people are good,” is not a sufficient answer! For years, law enforcement agencies have been fighting with Craigslist to clean up the obvious illegal activities on the site – and Craigslist has repeatedly balked or stalled. The word is spreading that Craigslist is a dangerous place to buy, sell, or look for a date. This is sad state of affairs in an era when technologies exist to ferret out much of the illegal activity, and good old fashioned monitoring can clean up much of the rest – and yet Craigslist resorts to a flag system that benefits troublemakers as readily as legitimate users. Yes, the criminals are in the minority; but the problem is this: more than on any other site I’ve ever seen (and I work in this industry), criminals flock to Craigslist. Craigslist users have every right to expect that their safety come before some abstract concept of “democracy.” People aren’t fools: as long as Craigslist refuses to evolve, the site will increasingly be defined by assaults, bugs, scams and other illegal activities – risks and frustrations that fewer and fewer users will be willing to put up with. There are alternatives to Craigslist - tulsaworld, geebo, oodle and olx.

gregcollier, (9/25/2009 7:18:59 PM)
For a business with this much traffic and this much income, the problems its users encounter day after day, post after post, are really beyond comprehension. They make enough money to fix this stuff, folks – and they refuse to do it! And that’s not all they refuse to fix. Over the last few years, newspapers and television news stories across the country have been reporting stories about victims – from theft to rape to murder – whose only mistake was responding to a Craigslist ad. Note to Craig: telling us that “most people are good,” is not a sufficient answer! For years, law enforcement agencies have been fighting with Craigslist to clean up the obvious illegal activities on the site – and Craigslist has repeatedly balked or stalled. The word is spreading that Craigslist is a dangerous place to buy, sell, or look for a date. This is sad state of affairs in an era when technologies exist to ferret out much of the illegal activity, and good old fashioned monitoring can clean up much of the rest – and yet Craigslist resorts to a flag system that benefits troublemakers as readily as legitimate users. Yes, the criminals are in the minority; but the problem is this: more than on any other site I’ve ever seen (and I work in this industry), criminals flock to Craigslist. Craigslist users have every right to expect that their safety come before some abstract concept of “democracy.” People aren’t fools: as long as Craigslist refuses to evolve, the site will increasingly be defined by assaults, bugs, scams and other illegal activities – risks and frustrations that fewer and fewer users will be willing to put up with. There are alternatives to Craigslist - tulsaworld, geebo, oodle and olx.



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