Craigslist and Scams

Craigslist and Scams

Member since 2008 · 251 posts · 7 votes

I've been using craigslist to post rental vacancies, and I know from posts here that a lot of you are, too. Do you get flooded with these out-of-town scammers? As soon as I post an add I get about 5 replies (within 30 minutes sometimes) of people "moving" here. I've been ignoring most of them, because when I do investigate, the story is invariably fishy. They give lots of details (such as they are coming to work for so-and-so) but when you check it out, so-and-so has never heard of this person. I even get phone calls like this. I guess it's just a part of life, I was just surprised by how flagrant it is and how little I've heard of it. From what I can tell, most of these scammers are either fishing for good email addresses (once you reply to them, they've got your real email address) or they're part of the fake cashier check scam (where you get a cashiers check for more than the deposit, refund the difference, then discover that the original check was bad). What experiences have the rest of you had? I've probably missed out on a legitimate renter or two, I suppose.

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  • Member since 2008 · 1 post · 0 votes
    19y

    I think you're right in your skepticism and I would say that anyone who is serious about renting from you better have their information together and it better check out or they have no business living at your valued propery. I get similar emails when I post on Craiglist as well and I'm sure they are just trying to build an email list. Don't respond unless you have a throw away email address that you're just using for Craiglist.

  • Residential Real Estate Agent · Dayton, OH · Member since 2008 · 70 posts · 1 vote
    19y

    It would be good to use a throw away email address for anything you post to the internet like the previous poster mentioned. For one option, go to http://www.e4ward.com and there you can set up unlimited email addresses that will forward email to your normal email address. Even your replies will only show the temp address to the person you are emailing to. This works great for me. If you start getting spam or once you are done with that particular add, you can disable that email address and use a different one for the next add! Best of all, this is all free.

  • Member since 2008 · 28 posts · 4 votes
    19y

    ask them for specific verifiable information, and tell them that you are going to check this information because of the scam problem...

  • Dayton, OH · Member since 2008 · 517 posts · 17 votes
    19y

    Some of the out of towners seem to be Commercial Real Estate Brokers that want to get rent comps for the area. Some will even come out and say it.

    trashmail.net is another email service that lets you set up throwaway / temporary email addresses. Another option is to leave your phone number and say appointment by phone only.

  • Real Estate Broker · College Station, TX · Member since 2012 · 2 posts · 0 votes
    14y

    We are having significant issues with spammers on craigslist too. How are you guys handling it?
    [LINK REMOVED]

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