We've been watching the autos for sale on there...Keep seeing nice cars, only about 4 years old for about 4,000.00

Haven't looked into them...but we were wondering if it was just a come on to try to sell you something for more money.

Never thought about any scams.

We'll just have to be careful.

thank you for the warning.

patti

The biggest problem I've found with Craiglist looking at cars is that people don't take the ads off after they sell the car. Very frustrating! Or people keep listing the same car every week and not taking off the old ads ... so I waste my time looking at the same vehicle that I do not want!

Thanks for the heads up Monica.

Thanks for the alert, Monica.

I will be looking for a house to rent in PCB, Florida in August - thanks for the warning.

From what happened, this looks more like an identity theft attempt, the type of questions asked on the "application" included appearance(eg. weight) and relatives names.
And, of course, the 1 month's rental that "must be sent with the application", would never be seen again.

Yikes! Thanks for the alert! Guess, should be careful anytime someone asks for personal info anyway.

There was something similar on the news here a few weeks ago. A guy "rented" a house to 40 different families and got 1st, last and security deposit from them and skipped out. Scary.

I have only looked at Craigs List a few times and it was years ago. Seems like it is more for "big cities" than the boonies. It would be great if you lived near a metropolitan area, though.

Thanks for the warning Monica. I hadn't heard about that one. Has your friend thought about alerting the local papers or the Philly Inquirer?

they're doing it in dc, also...heard it on the news. the dc rentals ask for a check sent to nigeria...they seem to be the hot bed of emails asking for cash, etc...

Some folks in Nigeria (some claims have been made of connections with high places) have long wanted help in shipping out millions, also. Plus from Oagadougou, Burkina Faso, as well as a number of other locations. I've had over 125 such offers ... received at just one email address. Usually they're offering me about 30% of anywhere from 6 million to about 30 million.

If I added them all up, I think that my share alone would be close to a billion, by now!

Then ... I'd really have problems ... what on earth would I do with anywhere near a billion dollars?

One guy, supposedly from England, had a cheque due him that he wanted me to collect, then send it to him ... who was to be travelling temporarily somewhere in Africa.

Monica and others, when you find connections, e.g. phone numbers, in Canada, contact www.phonebusters.com, the RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police contact people for such attempted fraudulent activities.

ole joyful ... helping folks increase their assets in legit ways ... and avoid being scammed

Thank you for the Canadian connection phone number. Just curious what area codes should we be looking for?
Marie from ND

It can work the other way too--scammers offering to rent the unit, even from overseas. My sister had that experience. Got some really odd, suspicious potential e-mails from potential tenants.

As for area codes, our phone books have listings in the initial pages showing where all of the area codes north of Mexico are located.

Do U.S. phone books show Canadian area code locations?

If not, let us know and I can make list.

Our phone books give a list of numbers to contact various other countries, and internal codes for various cities therein, for most of them.

ole joyful

When I was renting, I personally met with the agent/landlord or whatever to to view the property and to sign the papers. I wouldn't do it any differently now either and certainly NOT by email. Seems to me that the vast majority of people who get scammed simply beg for it by trying to get something for nothing, get rich quick or whatever. There's a way to do business professionally. Meeting the person on site to view the property would like have eliminated this scam.

One thing that isn't too common knowledge, and a little tip I'd give is to check phone numbers to see if they're forwarding numbers or cell phone numbers. Check the business number. It should be local. etc.

Folks, you gotta be careful, but also use common sense. About 3 times a year I see someone on the news who got scammed by greed. They sold their $3000 car to someone for $10,000, then paid to ship the car to a foreign country, and on top of it gave a check for the "change" and then cry because the check they got turned out to be a fake. Yes I have anger since the bank should be responsible for accepting the check in the first place and 3 months later denying it (since they should be able to find out quickly if it's bad), but that's the way it works. People never cease to amaze me.

Gotta run. I'm in contact with a Nigerian General who has picked ME from everyone in the world to help him out!

But that's me.... who just bought a vehicle advertised on Craigslist, after checking the ad, the website, the phone #, the business address, the vehicle ID #, values from 3 different sources etc.

Craig's list is a snake's den. I won't touch it anymore.

Did your friend contact Craig's List?
Historically, the company has been very good about posting warnings about suspected scams.
I've had great luck with CL for selling items.

Yes...all necessary parties involved were contacted.
I also have had good dealings with people on Craig's list.

BTW - This month's AARP newsletter had a front page story on this scam.