Avoid Craigslist Disasters

Online scams are on the rise. We were conned through Craigslist without even realizing it, and we want to share that story with you to keep you, your tenants, and your rentals safe!

We had a vacancy on our 4plex, so we posted it up for rent on Zillow, Craigslist, Cozy, and Facebook. It was a regular vacancy like any other vacancy... or so we thought. There was some strange activity around the house, like the screens in the backyard were removed from the windows one morning. There were also duplicate postings of our listing on Craigslist for $500/mo cheaper than our listing was posted... I flagged those posts thinking that they were just some bot trying to make money by charging application fees.

We were very concerned about the screens on the ground, and realized someone must have been trying to get inside the vacant house. So we got locks for the gates to the backyard, put up fake security cameras, and left a light on inside the house. Apparently it was not enough. 

The Break In

We visited family for Christmas and came back a few nights later. When we drove up to the property, the front house had potted plants hanging on the front porch. That is weird, we thought. Did a friend drop those off while we were gone? Then we noticed the lights were on inside the house. We peeked through the blinds and realized that someone had moved in the house while we were gone! We called the police, and they came and went in the house guns drawn.

After they searched the property and cleared it out, they told us it looks like this might be some kind of squatter situation.

"Squatters! No way," we cried. "This is unjust! How could people do this?"

The police chief came and said, "No this doesn't look like squatters. They moved all their stuff in and everything is clean and organized. They also have a cat and not a lot of squatters I know have animals."

The police were able to find phone numbers for the people who moved in and called them and told them to come back to the house.

Once the "squatters" arrived they were very upset with the police. They said, "Hey, what are you doing in our house! We paid the landlord for this place." 

"No you didn't," the police explained. "The landlords are standing right over there."

Then the fake tenants explained that they had been communicating with this fake landlord on Craigslist. They wired him $2,000 for rent and a deposit. The landlord said that he didn't get the first wire, so they wired him again. A total of $4,000+ wired to this fake landlord. The scammer said I will send you a key in the mail in a few days. The front door will be open for you. Then we found a broken window in the back room. This scammer must have broken in the window and left the front door unlocked, then these poor kids off Craigslist paid him a ton of money.

We told the fake tenants that they would have to move out. They couldn't afford what the real rent was for the house.  Fortunately, they moved out within 24 hours. We were able to relist the house for sale, and we avoided putting it on Craigslist this time.

Moral of The Story

If you are looking at things on Craigslist and it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Also, be careful and monitor Craigslist for potential scams. Some scammers will post a vacant house for rent and then break into it and rent it out.