Posted by 101livescan on 9/18/12 8:48am
Msg #434850
Rental Scams Anytown USA
It could happen any where, but it happened right here in my county.
It's a Nigerian scam on Craigslist when a citizen found a house to rent for $1000.
BEWARE!
SANTA MARIA - It began with an online search for a house to rent on Craigslist.
Rudy Sagisi found an ad for a rental home on Craigslist he says really surprised him, $1000 a month for this home in Santa Maria.
Sagisi says he immediately responded to the ad by email.
"I asked for information on where the house is, and who I needed to contact", Sagisi says.
Sagisi says he checked out the house and began sending emails about himself, his job, his income and his family with a man he believed was the homeowner living in Nigeria.
"Because they are out of the country, they wanted to know who I am before they rent to me", Sagisi says.
Sagisi says he was told to forward $2,000 for the first month's rent and a security deposit via Western Union, which he did.
"If it's a scam, I had the suspicion then", Sagisi says, "but then again I said, oh man, I can get the pay back if it's real, a thousand a month!"
But when a rental agreement never arrived and a request came for another $1,000 for the last month's rent, Sagisi felt something was wrong.
"Yeah because I did the research, like I said, I went to the internet also, I went to the property taxes", Sagisi says, "how did they know so much about the owner, his name, and how did they get the money from Western Union?"
"But now they want more and it seems to me I'm not going to send them another thousand," he adds.
Sagisi said he found out the house had just sold recently and was not for rent and says he's sharing his unfortunate experience so others won't fall for the same trap.
"I would like to have the public be aware that if this is a scam, don't fall into it because, I know, it's good, it's very good", Sagisi says, "but if they aren't hear, out of state or wherever, deal with someone else."
Sagisi hasn't given up hope he'll get his $2,000 back but right now he still can't figure out how it all happened.
There are more scams now in our country than ever. I thought SOX and SAFIR had it all over us, but the Nigerians are hitting on us using Craigslist. It was on 60 minutes about a year ago, a woman gave all her savings to a Nigerian investor who was going to multiply her savings, and she never saw a dime and tata to her savings, down the Nigerian hatch!
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Reply by JanetK_CA on 9/18/12 3:58pm
Msg #434913
Heard something on the local news here recently about a mystery shopper scam. (Or was it 60 minutes? I wasn't watching it, just heard it from the other room.) They do the classic thing of pretending to front money to someone, ask you to make purchases then, send a portion back to them. But the check never clears and the person is out the funds returned. And there is always an element of greed that sucks people in - in this case, that they get to keep what they purchased.
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Reply by LKT/CA on 9/18/12 11:27am
Msg #434873
People get scammed because of greed....trying to get something for nothing. An apartment rents for more than $1,000 and he expected tob rent a nice house for that? A house that's a dump rents for $1,900. Usually investment scams offer an outrageous ROI with little to no risk. When red flags get ignored, then you set yourself up to be a victim. If it sounds too good to be true..(etc.) BTW, these craigslist rental scams are nothing new and and they're not just perpetrated by Nigerians. There are crooks locally that remove "for sale" signs and try to rent homes they don't own. Nothing new here....
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