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We listed my grandmother's house for sale last week, and opened escrow this week (trust sale, house is vacant). However, our listing agent called me last night to tell me he's been getting calls about it being for rent, and he found listings for it online (I did too after searching for it). They used our agent's photos from the listing in the rental ads. Our agent replied to one of the ads and the guy responded with the awful spelling and grammar of a typical scammer, and claims to have moved to TN (grandma's house is in CA).
Should we be getting the police involved? Or just flag all the rental ads online? I've heard of this happening before, but I have no idea if there's anything we can do.
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
2,625 posts, read 7,406,793 times
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Common scam ended up on craigslist. I would also leave a small note in taped in the inside window facing out saying this property is definately not for rent.
I'd try to catch them first. If you alert Craigslist, the scammers will know. I'd try to set up a sting first. Maybe ask for a showing and take a hidden camera if the police won't participate in the sting with you? Or, even better, contact a local TV station. I've seen them do "stings" like this before.
Everdeen, while the idea of a sting may appeal to some, most of the scammers don't live anywhere near the homes supposedly for rent.
When I worked as a Realtor this happened fairly frequently. Scammers went into Craigslist ads and the MLS and pulled photos and info and created a new ad. There is not much the police can do as they typically lack the resources. Have Craigslist pull the ad and follow-up.
No point letting the PD know as there's nothing they can do about it. Most of these scammers are out of the country and all you can do is flag the posts on craigslist and report them on the links already provided. This goes on all the time all over the world, unfortunately.
The police can't do anything if the person is in Africa, which most are. What happens is this....
- You post your home for sale.
- Person in another country copies the photos and puts them on craigslist as a rental
- People contact the person and say they want to rent it
- The fake landlord says sure, but I need a deposit, send the check to this address
- Person sends check, it gets cashed and no one hears from the him again
There are many variations, but that is the basic idea. Steal money from people.
There is basically nothing you can do except contact craigslist and get the ad removed.
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