Realtors warn of online housing scam targeting renters

By: Traci Bridges | SCNow
Published: October 12, 2009

People in the market for a place to rent should be careful about finding homes via the Internet.

Several people looking for homes to rent in Florence through Craigslist recently have fallen victim to a scam through which homes listed for rent are actually homes for sale, Florence Realtor Jean Leatherman said.

“In the last 10 days, we’ve found out that two of our houses that are on the market were listed on Craigslist for rent,” Leatherman said.

“One was a $339,000 home that was listed for rent at $1,000 a month,” she said. “They have you send the deposit money to them and tell you that you can come pick up the keys. But there are no keys to be picked up because the house was never for rent to begin with. It’s a blind e-mail, so you can’t track the people down. Your money’s just gone.”

Craigslist scams have been reported in other parts of the country since the housing market began to deteriorate. The scams typically involve posting properties for rent or sale at discounted prices. The person posting the ad will ask prospective renters or buyers to mail a check, money order or cash or wire funds for the property.

A Craigslist spokeswoman said the company goes to great lengths to prevent scams from reaching users, but those that do are quickly identified and removed by user flagging. The site also publishes fraud warnings.

Leatherman said she hopes people will be aware of the scam and cautious about rentals listed online. She also hopes that anyone who is aware of the scam or has been a victim of a similar scam will report the situation to authorities.

“We don’t find out about this stuff unless somebody calls us and tells us about it,” she said. “People just need to remember that if it sounds or looks too good to be true, it probably is.”

— Traci Bridges can be reached at (843) 317-7325.