Maybe MLS Listings Need a “Friends Only” Tag
A real estate company in Cheyenne, Wyoming is reporting that its property listings have been “hacked” by overseas con artists who are claiming to be landlords for those properties[1]. Assist2Sell has reported the issue, and one employee reports that “people have been falling for it like crazy.” The scam, which is a variation on an old Craigslist classic, involves an anonymous landlord who is located overseas posting a “for rent” listing on Craigslist and collecting security deposits and first month’s rent in the form of money wires. It used to be that these homes were often actually occupied, or that the listing entity did not even check to see if the address matched up with the property they were pretending to list. However, as renters have become more savvy, the scammers have resorted to listing real properties that are really for sale or lease. And they’re getting all their information right, because they are using publicly available information posted online by real estate brokers, agents and homeowners.
Wendy Miller, a broker’s assistant at the Cheyenne Assist2Sell, observed that their branch is having a tough time, with what “seems like every week…another one of the houses on Craigslist.” When renters send the absentee landlord their money, the key never appears – and they tend to show up at the house or the brokerage wanting to know just what is going on. Unfortunately, local law enforcement insists that there is not much that can be done about the thievery because the police cannot file charges against people who live overseas. Lieutenant Mark Munari of the Cheyenne Police department simply said that “folks need to be very cautious about internet postings,” reminding would-be renters that “if one of these things sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
[1] http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2010/03/01/news/20local_03-01-10.txt