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The Craigslist ad is still up (or up again): https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/d/berkeley-two-story-3br-2ba-updated-cozy/7068211716.html https://sfbay.craigs

by nkurz 7y ago

The Craigslist ad is still up (or up again): https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/d/berkeley-two-story-3br-2ba-updated-cozy/7068211716.html https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/d/berkeley-two-story-3b... The house appears to exist as pictured at the claimed address on Google maps. Oddly, although Jeffrey's emails about the place were from a couple weeks ago, this current ad says "Posted a day ago". It also says "Call Laurence", although as before there is no phone number. Personally, I'm still not completely sure this is exactly the scam that is being described. I'm wondering if there might be another layer here --- maybe someone who took over an existing Craigslist ad? It does seem very well crafted for a plain rental scam. Edit: There is also a listing for the same house with same pictures on VRBO with 172 positive reviews: https://www.vrbo.com/564881 https://www.vrbo.com/564881. Given all the reviews, I presume that one is the real one. Maybe the Craigslist ad is a just a straight copy of this? Edit 2: Ooh, I wonder if the reason that the scammer is willing to meet people at the property from February 14th to 16th is that he has it reserved for those dates from VRBO. Might be interesting to cross-reference.

JoBrad 7y ago
Many times they are a copy of a legitimate ad.
- walrus01 7y ago
  Copying photos and the body text of a legitimate ad would certainly be a lot less time and effort on the part of a scammer than writing new custom scam ads every time.
  - imglorp 7y ago
    Oh boy, story time. I encountered the opposite scam. I was selling a house myself. I took photos, paid to have it listed, posted a sign out front, and posted ads in various places including CL. Someone contacted me to say they responded to an ad on CL for a rental house. The prospective renter was told by the scammer he was out of town and that they could go to the house and look around the property. He would transact the rental remotely and mail them the keys if they liked it. They were also told to ignore the For Sale sign out front! They did go see the house but saw the For Sale sign and called the number - me - at which point we figured out what was going on. They had also spoken to the guy on the phone, who sounded foreign. I found the CL fake rental ad, it was all of my photos from my sale posting, simply copied onto the fake rental ad. I responded to the ad and almost instantly got a long response from a Hotmail address. It was clearly a prepared response and included some clumsy standard rental application forms. Anyone who fell for this would have lost their rent/deposit/security as well as all their private info. Local police couldn't do anything about it but traced the phone to a VOIP, dead end. CL pulled the ad. Be careful out there.
    - Scoundreller 7y ago
      VoIP can be “backtracked”. Takes a bit of effort, but the DOJ got providers to do it for the fake IRS/SSA/INS calls. There’s a standardized process for it. Might lead to a deader-end, but “it’s VoIP so we can’t do anything” is a cop-out.
      - imglorp 7y ago
        Nod. The cops were decent, they put some effort in, but it wasn't the crime of the century so they weren't going all-out with subpoenas for an attempted petty scam. Also, we couldn't find anyone who was actually burned, although this guy could have been operating many ads in many markets. It's a living, I guess.
      - tartoran 7y ago
        More should be done to standardize VOIP tracking. It's a huge problem and this method is widely used for scams. I don't know if caller id spoofing can be prevented though. I get on average 10 scam calls daily, some days more. My phone is on vibrate and am using this as a way to relax instead of geting upset. I stand up from my desk and take a walk around the office. It mostly doesn't bother me but sometimes when it catches me at the wrong time it does get to me and Id rather this stopped. Sure, my phone does give me the 'Scam likely' but I wouldn't pick up from phone numbers that are not in my address book anyway. And I if phone vibrates I check after I finish what I currently doing so it could always wait. What bothers me is the ease with witch someone on the other side of the planet can do this. This thought only bothers me...
        Scoundreller 7y ago
        Neighbourhood spoofing is definitely a problem because I have on-call and it means it could be a known or unknown colleague (big org). Then there’s the time the scammers called every number sequentially (or simultaneously?) in a number block, jamming the incoming/outgoing lines because we have an exchange code block, but only a reasonable number of lines.
      - jcrawfordor 7y ago
- masonic 7y ago
  Craigslist scammers often copy legitimate ads from other venues as well. My eBay listings are constantly scraped and turned into Craigslist listings.
nkozyra 7y ago
As for edit 2, might that not leave too much of a paper trail for the scammer?
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  Could be a fraudulent booking with a stolen credit card or cracked account. Leaves too much of a human trail though. But I could think of a few ways around that too. But I’m not your fraud architect ;)
sgc 7y ago
I was renting out a house in the greater bay area a few years ago. Someone copied the ad word for word, photo for photo, and posted it half price. I was alerted by a suspicious apartment seeker. I think searching CL or even just the web with snippets from the ad could help figure this out.

by nkurz 7y ago

JoBrad 7y ago

Many times they are a copy of a legitimate ad.

walrus01 7y ago
Copying photos and the body text of a legitimate ad would certainly be a lot less time and effort on the part of a scammer than writing new custom scam ads every time.
- imglorp 7y ago
  Oh boy, story time. I encountered the opposite scam. I was selling a house myself. I took photos, paid to have it listed, posted a sign out front, and posted ads in various places including CL. Someone contacted me to say they responded to an ad on CL for a rental house. The prospective renter was told by the scammer he was out of town and that they could go to the house and look around the property. He would transact the rental remotely and mail them the keys if they liked it. They were also told to ignore the For Sale sign out front! They did go see the house but saw the For Sale sign and called the number - me - at which point we figured out what was going on. They had also spoken to the guy on the phone, who sounded foreign. I found the CL fake rental ad, it was all of my photos from my sale posting, simply copied onto the fake rental ad. I responded to the ad and almost instantly got a long response from a Hotmail address. It was clearly a prepared response and included some clumsy standard rental application forms. Anyone who fell for this would have lost their rent/deposit/security as well as all their private info. Local police couldn't do anything about it but traced the phone to a VOIP, dead end. CL pulled the ad. Be careful out there.
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    VoIP can be “backtracked”. Takes a bit of effort, but the DOJ got providers to do it for the fake IRS/SSA/INS calls. There’s a standardized process for it. Might lead to a deader-end, but “it’s VoIP so we can’t do anything” is a cop-out.
    - imglorp 7y ago
      Nod. The cops were decent, they put some effort in, but it wasn't the crime of the century so they weren't going all-out with subpoenas for an attempted petty scam. Also, we couldn't find anyone who was actually burned, although this guy could have been operating many ads in many markets. It's a living, I guess.
    - tartoran 7y ago
      More should be done to standardize VOIP tracking. It's a huge problem and this method is widely used for scams. I don't know if caller id spoofing can be prevented though. I get on average 10 scam calls daily, some days more. My phone is on vibrate and am using this as a way to relax instead of geting upset. I stand up from my desk and take a walk around the office. It mostly doesn't bother me but sometimes when it catches me at the wrong time it does get to me and Id rather this stopped. Sure, my phone does give me the 'Scam likely' but I wouldn't pick up from phone numbers that are not in my address book anyway. And I if phone vibrates I check after I finish what I currently doing so it could always wait. What bothers me is the ease with witch someone on the other side of the planet can do this. This thought only bothers me...
      - Scoundreller 7y ago
        Neighbourhood spoofing is definitely a problem because I have on-call and it means it could be a known or unknown colleague (big org). Then there’s the time the scammers called every number sequentially (or simultaneously?) in a number block, jamming the incoming/outgoing lines because we have an exchange code block, but only a reasonable number of lines.
    - jcrawfordor 7y ago
masonic 7y ago
Craigslist scammers often copy legitimate ads from other venues as well. My eBay listings are constantly scraped and turned into Craigslist listings.

nkozyra 7y ago

As for edit 2, might that not leave too much of a paper trail for the scammer?

Scoundreller 7y ago
Could be a fraudulent booking with a stolen credit card or cracked account. Leaves too much of a human trail though. But I could think of a few ways around that too. But I’m not your fraud architect ;)

sgc 7y ago

I was renting out a house in the greater bay area a few years ago. Someone copied the ad word for word, photo for photo, and posted it half price. I was alerted by a suspicious apartment seeker. I think searching CL or even just the web with snippets from the ad could help figure this out.