Craigslist scammers are not the brightest

I saw that while looking for good rentals. If it looks too good to be true, it has to be. Is island trader still the best place to look for rentals?

Barcelona, Spain, architect designed apartment:

http://www.friendlyrentals.com/en/apartments/barcelona/apartment-7806-1.htm

Google image search is the best way to sort out image scams. 🙂

Wow, a bidet :@)

Also the radiators. I don't think I've ever seen a house on STX with radiators?

They're not hard to spot and I "tag" a few every week! If you respond to an ad and get the typical runaround of an absentee owner who's been called to do "God's work" in a foreign country but seriously wants to have a wonderful person such as yourself care for their place and all you have to do is send a deposit, upon which they'll promptly send you the lease and the keys - run! Craigslist IS a good local source for rentals despite the scams.

we had a bidet in one of our condos. But no heat, no basement, nor any of the other not-likely-in the-vi items.

These scam postings have been going on for a long time, and they usually involve someone wanting funds wired to the owner, usually outside the US. We recently heard of a vacation rental that actually existed on stx out by the yacht club, but the person posting was not the owner, and when the folks found out, they had already sent their payment off as a wire transfer.
I've seen lots of these apt rental ones on CL, for some reason lately they mostly have indicated Schooner Bay, but as one-bedroom apts, which of course don't exist. There also was one for a house in Beeston Hill that was actually for sale, but this was a rental ad, again from someone who allegedly was living in Europe.
We've posted our rentals on CL in the past few years as the market has changed, and have gotten some really good folks who have replied, so don't discount CL, just watch and check things out carefully. We've even had folks rent/sign lease/ pay deposit etc without actually being on island and seeing the house, which made us very nervous, but they wound up as tenants for the full time they were on stx, so it worked out for all of us. I'm sure (or would hope) they checked us out as we did them though.

The bidet would be nice for vomiting after one of those wild parties in the "Lost Dog". I'd use the radiator for warming up the food, to save on electricity. The European-style outlets can be used for pranking WAPA.

The most obvious hint that it's not STX is the absence of a gallery/porch/balcony.

Massive tip off: they tout the 'sandy beach'...yet not. a. single. ocean. view. photo. from. within. NADA.

Very careful about not showing ANY view out of ANY window....so no idea where it might be or facing a beach, a brick wall, or a strip club dressing room door.

...and then I ditto on the european power plugs, and that any place like that would not go for the stated price...there's just so many red flags waving around that listing it's a wonder a bull hasn't run thru it....

The sad part is there wouldn't be so many of these scam ads if so many weren't scammed. These craigslist scam ads appear even in the Midwest. One can spend all day and night flagging them. 🙁

I contacted them and wasted a whole bunch of their time. They were just a little upset when they figured it out.

i thought about doing that too. maybe next time

I contacted them and wasted a whole bunch of their time. They were just a little upset when they figured it out.

Done the same thing several times when I have some spare time - use an anonymous email address and ask them a ton of questions, request for more photos, directions to the property and much more spread over several emails. I figure it's fair payback for being scammers. There was one a while back where, through a window, one could clearly see towering skyscrapers ...

I play the car scammers sometimes. The car scams are easy to spot. Most of the time it is the pictures that give it away.

I contacted them and wasted a whole bunch of their time. They were just a little upset when they figured it out.

Done the same thing several times when I have some spare time - use an anonymous email address and ask them a ton of questions, request for more photos, directions to the property and much more spread over several emails. I figure it's fair payback for being scammers. There was one a while back where, through a window, one could clearly see towering skyscrapers ...

You can't fix stupid.

there is an article in the avis about the above scam.

They often will steal photos from a Realtors or other VI website to post as their own.

They often will steal photos from a Realtors or other VI website to post as their own.

Love it when they also post the address of the property. A quick search links the address to ads for the property listed by a bona fide realtor either for sale or at 3X the rental price of the scam rental ... additional photos too!

If you e mail them they reply with an e mail containing a link that contains a virus.

If you e mail them they reply with an e mail containing a link that contains a virus.

Never had that happen but likely it does.

If you e mail them they reply with an e mail containing a link that contains a virus.

Never had that happen but likely it does.

I tried it. It's a link that looks like DHL. My anti virus and malware protection blocked it.

If you e mail them they reply with an e mail containing a link that contains a virus.

Never had that happen but likely it does.

I tried it. It's a link that looks like DHL. My anti virus and malware protection blocked it.

I thought you were saying this happens generally and weren't referring to the specific ad - sorry. I have a Mac so don't have to suffer through most viruses but apart from that my email provider shunts off any which slip through. Now that I think back I did start to "play" with one recent craigslist advertiser, using an anonymous email address and asking for more specifics on the scam ad posted. Never heard anything back but a few hours later one of the rare email virus warnings popped into my inbox advising that the email had been removed to the virus folder. Could well have been a response from that scammer!