So many people have showed up on the doorstep of Jonathan Scott’s and Mike McGuill’s home in the popular vacation spot of Provincetown, Massachusetts thinking they have rented the home through a Craigslist advertisement that Scott and McGuill have taped a note to their front door addressed to Craigslist Renters that reads, “You have been scammed. You have lost all your money. This Home is not for rent.” Craigslist is a popular place to go for people looking for a vacation home to rent.  It is also a popular place for scammers to place phony ads to cheat unsuspecting victims.  Scammers place phony listings and trick people into wiring money as a security deposit or rent for the vacation rental before the victim finds out that the scammer does not own the home.  It is a simple matter for a scammer to copy and paste a legitimate real estate advertisement or listing into the scammer’s Craigslist ad, often indicating a temptingly low rent. Unfortunately, once the victim finds out that the scammer never owned the property and the ad was a scam, it is too late to get his or her money back.
TIPS
The vast majority of the listings on Craigslist are legitimate, but you only have to be cheated once to feel the pain.  When the rent looks too good to be true, you should immediately be skeptical.  When the owner is out of the country and wants you to wire money, you should be even more skeptical and if by out of the country we mean Nigeria, you should really be skeptical.  Scammers prefer people to wire money because unlike a check or a credit card payment, it is almost impossible to stop payment or get the money back.
If you are considering responding to a vacation rental advertisement on Craigslist, confirm that the person who says he or she is the owner by going to the tax assessors listings for the city or town where the property is located. This information is readily which available online.  If the names don’t match, that is a recipe for disaster.  Also, go on line and see if you can find a duplicate listing for the home advertised on Craigslist.
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