WESTFIELD – A Craigslist rental scam that has been running nationwide made its way to Westfield last week.
The house at 825 Southampton Road really is for rent, but not for $725.
I saw an ad on Craigslist and sent an email inquiring as to whether it was part of a house for rent or if it were the entire house, why was the rent only $725?
This is the email I received:
“Thanks for your interest and inquiries about my house. The house is still available for rent and we are looking for a responsible person/family to occupy and maintain the house. Myself and my wife just traveled to Philippines with Experience Mission. We will be away for about 4 years. The house is available for rent for short term and long term as we will be moving to our family house when we get back. I was unable to find a tenant before I traveled which I why I posted an ad online. My initial plan was to sell the house but it was not successful because the Realtor raised the price which made it difficult for me to sell so never mind if you see the for realtor sign in front of the house, it has already been taken off the market for sale so you will be dealing with me directly. . . . Rental price: $725 per month and security deposit is $725 (security deposit is refundable).”
Red flag number one: a house renting for only $725. Not likely!
Next red flag: I found his ad had been flagged and pulled from Craigslist, but didn’t have a reason as to why.
Two more red flags: I did a google search of the property, which told me two things: the house appears to be owned by Liptak Carpet Cleaners and other ads (on sites others than Craigslist) showed the exact same house renting for $1,400.
When I asked this alleged owner of 825 Southampton Road for his name, he gave me the name Chris Walter and supplied a telephone number of (775) 400-2983.
Really big red flag: when I googled the phone number, this is what I got:
“Almost fell for it in Port Charlotte, FL – same ad: Thanks for your interest and inquiries about my house. The house is still available for rent and we are looking for a responsible person/family to occupy and maintain the house. Myself and my wife just traveled to Philippines with Catholic HEART Workcamp. We will be away for about 4 years. The house is available for rent for short term and long term as we will be moving to our family house when we get back. I was unable to find a tenant before I traveled which I why I posted an ad online. My initial plan was to sell the house but it was not successful because the Realtor raised the price which made it difficult for me to sell so never mind if you see the for realtor sign in front of the house, it has already been taken off the market for sale so you will be dealing with me directly.” according to findwhocallsyou.com/1-775-400-2983.
Sound familiar? According to this website, the same scam has taken place in Utah, South Carolina, Alabama and Nevada among other places since August, but mostly in the past month.
People who posted to this site, claimed the owner asked them to wire money.
In my case, “Chris Walter” simply asked me to fill out an application, which seemed pretty innocuous. He did not ask for date of birth, social security number, bank information nor to send any money – yet.
I contacted the realtor, Kate, who represents Liptak Carpet Cleaners (the real owners), listed on the ad posted on other sites, and she had just been alerted to the scam by someone else.
Westfield Police Capt. Michael McCabe said that scammers poach pictures of real properties and fraudulently try to “rent” the properties.
Kate said this has never happened to her before with rental properties. She redid her Craigslist ad with a reduced rent of $1,375 for 825 Southampton Road and with the following warning:
“** Please be alert for SCAMS using these photos. We are the agents for the owners (Liptak Carpet Cleaners). We do not use e-mail to communicate and will show you this house before asking for applications and money.**”
Most people say you cannot trust Craigslist, but in the past seven years, I have found four legitimate apartments as well as several real jobs on the site.
So how does one protect themselves? McCabe said by using due diligence, and investigating ads as I did.
Craigslist posts the following ways of avoiding scams on its website:
“Deal locally, face-to-face —follow this one rule and avoid 99% of scam attempts;
Do not extend payment to anyone you have not met in person;
Never wire funds (e.g. Western Union) – anyone who asks you to is a scammer;
Never give out financial info (bank account, social security, paypal account, etc);
Do not rent or purchase sight-unseen—that amazing “deal” may not exist;
Refuse background/credit checks until you have met landlord/employer in person.”
Westfield Police Sgt. Steve Dickinson, who runs the Westfield Landlords Group as part of the Westfield Community Policing Division, said, “People need to use normal common sense and never give any money down unless 100 percent positive about whom you are dealing with.”
“Be cautious,” Dickinson said, “Meet face-to-face. Don’t fill out an application or give any money without seeing the property first.”
Other options for finding rentals in the city include using classified ads instead.
Flora Masciadrelli, director of sales and classified sales manager for The Westfield News Group, said that landlords pay to place ads to rent their properties, which makes them far more legitimate. The newspaper also has access to the landlords’ contact information and has built relationships with them over the years.
The ads can be found in the print version of the newspaper and online; classified ads are a free part of the online newspaper found at thewestfieldnews.com/classifieds.
Staff Writer Christine Charnosky can be reached at [email protected]
