Craigslist Scheme Preying on South Florida Renters

Craigslist con artists are targeting South Florida's rental market by taking advantage of former homeowners seeking cheap leases and current owners who need help paying their mortgages.

One variant of the scam uses photos of real homes for rent, but at steeply reduced prices. The contact information may include the true homeowner's name or other legitimate information to camouflage the fraud from even savvy searchers. But terms of the bargain-basement lease are typically the same; send the money, we'll send you the keys.

Laura Pearlman, a Realtor with Signature Service Realty in West Palm Beach who works with rentals, said the rental market has swelled with increases in foreclosures and trouble getting loans.She regularly receives bogus e-mail responses when she posts a "housing wanted" request. Pearlman states: "Unscrupulous people know how hot the rental market is right now and they are preying on the unwitting public. They know this is just another niche for them to make money."

Pearlman said the scammers often claim to be missionaries or other aid workers, who are stationed out of the country and need to rent their home. Furthermore, their e-mails are sprinkled with "God bless you's," and the alleged preference that the tenant has "the fear of God." One victim, O'Hagan, who recently got caught up in this scam when she tried to rent her four-bedroom Royal Palm Beach home on Craigslist. She states: "It's so awful because they use all this religious talk. It's just cowardly."

O'Hagan and her husband Brian are moving north to be closer to family and higher-paying jobs. With it unlikely they could sell the home for what they paid, they decided to try and rent it for $2,300-a-month. However, someone claiming to be Brian, with the e-mail address Briant.ohagan@yahoo.com, posted the home's photos on Craigslist with a price of $1,000 per month. He then sent interested renters a contract, with requests for Social Security numbers and other personal information.

O'Hagan's Realtor Craig Fialkowski, who listed their home, said recognized the con when he was contacted by a woman who found both listings -- the one for $1,000 and the one for $2,300 -- and noticed the photos were the same.

Turned out it was too late. Seven people (some even with contracts in hand!), showed up at the O'Hagans' home. Seeing the house occupied, they knocked on the door and found out the ad they were responding to was fake. Craigslist, which did not return an e-mail request for comment, clearly posts scam warnings on its listings, including advice to avoid dealing with a landlord or owner who is out of the country or cannot meet you in person.