Victim Location 96810
Type of a scam Rental
I found a listing for a rental property on Craigslist for $90/night in Kailua. My email was returned quickly and I had many exchanges with the "owner" of the property. He was willing for me to name my own price for a monthly rental. He sent me a contract for the property within a day, reflecting the price I had named. His email included specific details on sending money via Pay-pal.
Because I do not trust Craigslist in general, I went back to check the listing. It was gone! It had only been posted for three or four days. I then checked the address and found the property–which had just been sold for over $3 million! (As a rental it would go for more than $7,000 a month.) The pictures on the real estate listing did not look at all like those on Craigslist.
The contract, too, was very generic looking and was sent as a Word document. It lacked things a legitimate contract would have–like the name of the "owner" clearly printed on the document.
I did not respond to the contract email immediately (I wanted to see if I could track down the "owner" before answering him), but he sent an email with "urgent response needed" on it. I gave him an urgent response: Good-bye.
I got the impression he had found himself a victim (a desperate mother) and he took down his post with the anticipation of getting a healthy deposit. It will be interesting to see if a post for this property returns after he loses the old fish he had on his line for a few days.