Greg's Corner

You don’t even have to be doing business online to become the victim of a scam

Normally, when you’re the victim of an online rental scam, you’re usually the person who thinks they rented a property only to learn the property was not for rent at all and the person you gave money to was a con artist. Those victims often find themselves broke and sometimes homeless. Recently, in Baltimore County, Maryland, that exact scam happened but another victim was drawn into the scam as well.

Keith Mills is a contractor who owns the home and was living there while he was remodeling the home. He went away on vacation for over a week and when he returned he found the locks were changed and someone was living in his home. The people living in the home claim they had rented the home on craigslist and had the right to be there. The problem is Mr. Mills was not renting the home on craigslist and the people who had moved in had paid a scammer. So one might assume you just call the police and have the squatters removed. Not so, in this case. According to local law, Mr. Mills has to go to court to prove he is the owner of the house, then he can have the other people removed.

It sounds like Mr. Mills was showing the property as it had a realtor’s lockbox on the door. So it’s possible someone had copied the realtor’s ad to craigslist and listed the property for rent instead of for sale which is a common craigslist scam. If you’re selling a property through a realtor, it might behoove you to keep an eye on the local real estate listings on the less than reputable websites to make sure no one is copying it.