Beware of bogus rentals on Craigslist

Last Saturday, I had lunch in Boston with some friends from Houston who were passing through on their annual trek to Provincetown. It’s the one and only time I get to see them, which I do either here or in P’Town. Their usual rental on Bradford Street – a quirky and charming flat in a rambling wooden house that reminded me of Mrs. Madrigal’s apartment building in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City – has been sold, so they’re in new digs this year. They found it on Home Away and, once they settled in, reported that it’s quite nice.

Fortunately, they hadn’t tried to rent through Craigslist, or they might have found themselves dragging their roller bags down Commercial Street on a foggy, drizzly Cape night.

The Cape, it seems, is the frequent target of scams in which folks pay for a summer rental, only to show up and find out the place doesn’t exist or is already occupied.

The rental problems with Craigslist was the subject of a recent consumer issues column in The Boston Globe. The article focused on a couple in Provincetown. Owners of a two family home with a permanent tenant occupying the second apartment, Jonathan Scott and Mike McGuill have a permanent note attached to their front door:

It is addressed to “Craigslist Renters.

“You have been scammed,” the note says, the words underlined twice for emphasis. “You have lost all your money. This home is not for rent.”

The note advises those who have been duped to go immediately to the police to report the fraud.“We are sorry,” the note concludes. “But Craigslist is at fault.” (Source: Boston Globe)

They haven’t had any scammed vacationers show up this season. Yet. But they have had people stop by who wanted to check the rental they had seen current ads on Craigslist for. So they’re anticipating that, at some point or another, some would-be renters will spill out of a car, or walk over from the ferry, looking for their keys.

The ad that have suckered the poor scammees in was for a luxury 2BR apartment, and the come-on is the pictures showing off polished wood floors, a modern kitchen, and all that Cape light. The same pictures that were used on a real-estate site when the house was for sale a few years back.

Scott and McGuill have tried to get Craigslist to take the ads down, flagging them as fraudulent whenever they spot one.

“There are scammers everywhere and they are to be condemned,” said Jonathan Scott…“But what Craigslist is doing is aiding and abetting them openly, blatantly, and with impunity. That’s the real problem.”

Yes, scammers are everywhere. And lot of them do seem to have found their way to Craigslist. Of course, getting scammed out of a rental deposit you wired to god-knows-who/god-knows-where isn’t as bad as being murdered. Over a hundred murders are tied to folks answering an ad or having a murderer answer their ad on the site.

Me? I’ve never used Craigslist. And once I watched the made-for-TV movie about Philip Markoff, The Craigslist Killer, I’m pretty sure I never will. For those who’ve forgotten, Markoff was a married medical student who murdered three women advertising massage/escort services on the site. He hanged himself in the jail just down the street from where I live. (Not that I would be placing ads for massage services, but the Markoff story was really creepy and definitely put me off of Craigslist before I ever got on.)

Anyway, for potential renters, an excellent tip is to never wire money to god-knows-who/god-knows-where. If there’s a scam on, well kiss that dough goodbye.

Scott and McGuill have made numerous attempts to get Craigslist to remove the fraudulent ads.

They have never received a word in response from Craigslist.

“Trying to contact a live person or customer service at Craigslist is absolutely impossible,” said Scott. “It’s the black hole on the Internet.”

Sean Murphy, the Globe consumer ombudsman, didn’t have any better luck with his multiple attempts to contact Craigslist.

Craigslist keeps its cost low by operating a bare bones website that looks like it has never been updated, and keeping staff to a minimum.

Craigslist is a $700M company with 50 employees. That’s pretty hefty revenue per capita. And they’re not spending much of anything on their site. I just took a peek, and the interface looks like something out of the pioneer days of the Internet. So precious little of their revenue goes there. Which means they should be able to afford to do something about all those scammers and psychos using their site. But, hey, if you can get away with doing nothing, why not?

So, if you’re looking to getaway, beware of bogus rentals on Craigslist. You may end up out your deposit – and holding your bag on someone’s front porch, reading a sign that reads “You have been scammed.”