Saturday, December 17, 2016

Scammers Target Real Estate Agents By Copying, Pasting Their Listings, Then Re-Posting Them On Craigslist For Use In Rent Scams

In Carthage, New York, WWNY-TV Channel 7 reports:
  • Lori Nettles is a real estate broker for TLC Real Estate in Carthage. Nettles says her office has received several phone calls lately about the company's real estate listings on Craigslist.

    The thing is, her company doesn't use Craigslist. "We're finding that for our rentals, they're being copied and posted on Craigslist by scammers," she said.

    Scammers will take listings right from a real estate company's website and make an ad of their own on Craigslist. The innocent person responds, sends a security deposit or first month's rent check without acutally meeting anyone in person.

    Nancy Storino is a real estate agent in Watertown and she says the last scam she had was a house that she actually owned.

    "They actually had a man's name that had called upon it that said he was the owner he wanted them to put a check in the mail for the security deposit and he would send them the lease and the key as soon as they sent the second check," said Storino.