Marblehead Home Subject Of 'Rent' Scam On Craigslist

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The prospect of staying in a nice house for a few days near the ocean in Marblehead was, in fact, too good to be true for those who replied to a recent advertisement on Craigslist.

Marblehead police are telling residents to be on the lookout for scams after the "for rent" ad was placed without the knowledge of the homeowners.

"A couple of people have fallen victim to the scam already," police said. "When renting, please do your homework and if possible use a local realtor to avoid this type of situation."

According to the Better Business Bureau, scammers are mainly based in Nigeria, England and some in the United States, and use the ads to steal money and identifying information from hopeful vacationers.

The Better Business Bureau advises to be on the lookout for the following for avoiding Craigslist apartment rental scams:

• The email addresses they use usually are from yahoo, ymail, rocketmail, fastermail, live, hotmail and gmail, and they also post ads under anonymous craigslist addresses. They frequently change their aliases.
• The deal sounds too good to be true. Scammers will often list a rental for a very low price to lure in victims. Find out how comparable listings are priced, and if the rental comes in suspiciously low, walk away.
• They use photos stolen from other property advertisements or from home furnishing catalogs or hotel websites.
• They use fake names, often stolen from Facebook profiles or networking sites. Often they assume the identities of previous victims.
• What they all have in common is that sooner or later you get a request to transfer funds via Western Union, Moneygram or some other wire service.
• Never under any circumstances, wire money at the request of any prospective "landlord" via Western Union, Money Gram or any other wire service. Even if they tell you to wire the funds to a friend or relative's name "to be safe," it's a trap.
• Always check bbb.org to see if the "company" has any complaints.