Virginia Couple Facing Foreclosure Discover Their Home Listed For Rent On Craigslist By Nigerian Scammer

In Lake Jackson, Virginia, InsideNova.com reports:

• A Lake Jackson couple was shocked to see their house for rent on Craiglist this week. [... T]hey are losing it to foreclosure, and now it appears a scam artist is trying to make a buck by fraudulently listing it for rent. [Ashley] Pollard bought the home when “the market was crazy” in 2006. Now, because of hard times, they’ve been forced to put it back on the market for “short sale,” meaning the bank will sell it for the best price they can get.

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• [L]ike so many who have been hit by the economic recession, the family is forced to leave. So they turned to the internet to look for a new place to live. On Sunday night, Pollard was shocked to see her house listed on the popular Web site, Craigslist. [... B]efore she [called police], Pollard curiously e-mailed the person who listed her home on Craigslist, stating that she was interested in the house and asked when she could move in. In a reply, she said a man — who claimed to live in Nigeria — told her that she could move in within a few days if she sent him an $800 deposit. Once he received the money he would then send her the house keys. The man went on to write that he and his wife went to Nigeria to do missionary work for a church, but “fell in love with it so much that they decided to stay” and live there, said Pollard.

For the story, see Scammer posts Lake Jackson family’s home for rent on Craigslist.