Listing copied and reposted fraudulently. Advise/recourse?

[Derek Gilbert]

I'm an owner / landlord in Boston. I had just posted my property on Craigslist and someone took the images I posted, changed the wording a little and posted the apartment as a "property manager" on Zillow/Trulia. I do not know this person and now can not list myself. I have reported the listing on both sites. Do I have any recourse here? Small claims? It seems like this person should lose their license? 

I'm guessing when someone is interested they are saying "sorry that apartment is no longer available but check out these other I have". This is likely costing me leads and is obviously extremely scummy. More so it just downright  pisses me off. 

Thanks for any advice

[Gail K.]

Very common problem unfortunately.  I've had a fair number of ads stolen and so longer post on craigslist.  Watermarking the pictures didn't stop these scammers.

Often these scammers are not local; if contacted they give some baloney story about living out of town/state and require that interested parties sent money for a deposit without seeing the place; they will then send the keys.  As stupid as this sounds, there are folks who do this...which is why these type of scams continue. 

I once had someone send a scammer $750 for a deposit for one of my houses; when I was finally contacted (when they showed up and knocked on the door and my tenants answered) this person wanted to know what I could do about it.  Sorry...absolutely nothing except encourage her to put a stop order on the check she sent this guy.

Anyway, it's gotten to the point where, as I said, I don't post on craigslist, I don't include the address on my properties and I often have to leave a note on the door of my properties warning folks who might be stopping by that I AM the true owner of the place and the rent is such and such NOT the pitifully low rent the scammer is posting.

Reporting it to the sites WILL eventually get it removed but it can take several days (or longer) for this to occur.

Gail