Beware of Internet scams. With the boom in technology, people have greater access to information, and also are more susceptible to individuals trying to scam them out of money. Recently, my sister-in-law was the target of an attempted scam while she was on the computer looking for apartments to rent. To my relief she was able to decipher that the story did not quite fit, and thus was not scammed, but there are many times when people are not so lucky.
The scam started as a very innocent search and contact. She was in the market for an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and in her efforts to find a suitable apartment she searched Craigslist for vacancies. After a brief search, she came across an advertisement, in which the “owner” of an apartment was looking to rent while he was working as a doctor in Africa.
Now this might seem extremely plausible, doctor’s work all over the world and for a doctor to be working in Africa is a very understandable and believable story, but soon afterthe story began to become suspicious. The ad read “beautiful one bedroom and one bathroom spacious apartment for $900 per month with a $600 (refundable security deposit).” After a few brief e-mails back and forth, the “owner” requested money to be wired to him in Africa in gain access to the apartment. The “owner” requested the money, and in return she would be given the key to view and assess the apartment to see if it fits her needs. Now why would anyone need a $600 dollar deposit just to view the inside of an apartment? This is what ticked her off that this was a scam; she knew that by wiring the money, it would be in his possession within days, maybe hours!
Upon further research, we discovered that there was a vacancy, however, it was not apartment, nor was it his. After typing the address into a Google search, it came up as a listing for a house for sale by a person who was not the man she had previously been in contact with. The scam this individual was running was one in which he would find Craigslist advertisements of houses for sale, and take the pictures from those ads and use them as apartment advertisements. By doing this, he has realistic pictures from many different angles. Advertising a room that does exist, people might be more willing to disperse the 600 dollar deposit. In turn, he would receive your 600 dollars and you would receive nothing. The scam would be complete, and there would be no way for you to retrieve your money.
This type of scam happens every day; the scammers give you a story, and you take your chances on whether or not the person is a legitimate source. Luckily, my sister-in-law was extremely hesitant to give anyone any money just to view the inside of an apartment, therefore she did not give him the money, but there are people who do. However, most people are not thinking that someone, let alone a doctor, could be deceiving them. In the end, my sister-in-law took the necessary steps and reported this individual to the domain masters of Craigslist. From the posted warnings as you enter the Craigslist website selected fields they do give a clear warning that scams might be present and to act vigilant when dealing with individuals over the Internet. But I have not seen any serious legal action that has been taken to prevent and stop these scams.