[433] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Beware Housing Rental Advance-Fee "Scrape" Scams
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Mon Mar 2 12:53:41 2009
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 09:27:34 -0800
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Beware Housing Rental Advance-Fee "Scrape" Scams
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000513.html
Greetings. With the housing market in meltdown, there are vast
numbers of persons currently in motion from one residence to another,
sometimes in desperate situations. This has opened the door for all
sorts of scams, including an Internet-enabled version of the classic
419 "advance-fee" fraud, now directed at local rental real estate
instead of promising multi-million dollar payoffs.
I ran into this myself over the weekend. I was helping a friend try
to find a house to lease here in L.A. on a very restricted budget.
One particular newly posted Craigslist ad that met my search
parameters got my attention immediately.
The initial problem was that it appeared to be too good. The lease
price seemed way out of line -- far too low -- for the property and
location (even taking into account its location very close to a
freeway). Still, you never know.
My friend contacted the party listing the ad via e-mail (Note 1: No
phone number provided -- though that's not so unusual with Craigslist
ads).
Replies came back promptly from a party claiming they had to move
suddenly to Kentucky, confirming the low price, and sounding all
gung-ho to rent.
Note 2: E-mail correspondent was using a Yahoo mail address
Note 3: E-mail correspondents' e-mail address name and "real name"
displayed were not quite the same.
Note 4: E-mail correspondents' language and phrasing "I had to move
quickly here with my only daughter" -- etc. -- were highly reminiscent
of 419 scam wordings in tone and feel, just in a new context.
Note 5: A real deal like that would have been snapped up in five
minutes. But the correspondent acted as if they had no other
inquiries.
My friend was immediately provided with the street address of the
property (a bit surprising). Searching on that address found other
listings for the property, but with major variations in statistics
like house size, and at almost three times the asking price for the
lease that was quoted in the original Craigslist ad.
It seems clear what's going on. Someone, probably offshore, has
"scraped" real online ads for that house, created their own fake
listings, and is trying to get people, probably multiple victims, to
wire them "deposits" and personal information to supposedly lease the
house -- a house with which they have no legal connection.
I have a title search in progress. If nothing else I'd like to notify
the true owner of this property about what's going on. But I
naturally have now recommended to my friend -- who was already
suspicious -- that they forget about any further contacts regarding
this particular house (any leads from the readership regarding
affordable rental housing here in L.A. will be gratefully accepted).
The moral of this story is as old as human history. If a deal looks
too good to be true, it almost certainly isn't legitimate. Human
nature always pushes us to hope that we've found an exception to that
rule -- but that's a rare circumstance indeed.
Buyer -- and renter -- beware!
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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