real estate scam

Craigslist can also be a haven for scams:

Besides obvious headline being obvious this article provides a lesson to be learned.

It’s basically your usual fake check scam where a woman in Sebring, Florida was trying to rent a property on craigslist and received two checks and was asked the wire the difference via Western Union.

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that checks over the asking amount and being asked to wire money are two huge red flags of a craigslist scam.

Luckily the woman was smart enough not to fall for the scam. However it seems that her friends are not the sharpest tools in the crayon box. They allegedly advised her to deposit the checks so the scammer can be charged with fraudulent check writing. That is possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard when it comes to these scams. Surprisingly this is not the first time I’ve heard this. So let me repeat this and be perfectly clear.

Don’t ever cash a check that was sent to you that was over the asking amount…ever.

If you cash or deposit the checks and they turn out to be fakes you will be held responsible for that money to your bank. The scammer will more than likely not ever br prosecuted because for the most part they operate outside of the country and are very difficult to prosecute.

As I’ve said before the more knowledge that is out there for people not to fall for these scams then the scammers will stop trying to prey on people. Unfortunately that is the only way to stop them.