Tag Archives: craigslist rental scam

Real Estate

Craigslist, A New Twist on an Old Real Estate Scam

house-for-rent

In a different twist on an old scam, real estate scammers are using new tricks to try to pull a fast one on people searching for a place to rent.

Although everyone thinks they would never fall for a scam, it can happen to anyone. Recently, the people doing the tricking are getting more creative.

You may know that agents list properties for sale on Craigslist.

Instead of just trying to get you to send money in exchange for a key, sight unseen, now scammers are actually putting victims in touch with legitimate real estate agents.

The individual is being told, call the agent, they’ll show you the property, but don’t say anything about renting because I’m the owner and I don’t want them to know I’m going to take the listing away from them.

Once the potential renter has fallen in love with the house, they’re told to send the alleged owner a security deposit. With one pen stroke, the scammer has tricked both the buyer and agent.

Now that they’re more aware of the issues, most agents are being pro-active and trying to stop any fake rentals before things go too far.

Your best protection is to ask the agent if the owner wants to rent the house. Most listing agreements cannot be cancelled by the owner unless the real estate agent agrees to the cancellation.

The best advice, however, is to work with someone you trust, and remember if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

It is important to note that there are legitimate listings on Craigslist. The site has become a popular place for agents to post listings. If you are searching on Craigslist, just remember to use caution and do your research if you find something that interests you.

Real Estate

Craigslist Rental Scam II

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Paul Salamone
Paul Salamone

Home may be a man’s castle, but in Paul Salamone’s case, the entire fiefdom was allegedly fraudulent.

The Medford man is facing a Suffolk County, Long Island, jury this week after being accused of breaking into seven homes in various states of foreclosure and illegally renting some of them out in a scheme to capitalize on the failing local housing market. In his defense, his attorney points out that 28-year-old Salamone, who prosecutors say had renovated some of the vacant houses before he advertised them as for rent on Craigslist, truly believes what he was doing was right. Despite Salamone’s supposed good intentions, at least two families that rented from him were caught in the crossfire and evicted after the alleged scam began to unravel.

Accused felon Paul Salamone is charged with renting foreclosed homes he didn’t own.

“Confusion and misunderstanding, not guns or knives, were Mr. Salamone’s weapons,” said Marc Lindemann, the assistant district attorney who is prosecuting the case, in his opening statements at Suffolk County court in Riverhead on June 22.

Salamone allegedly told realtors that they no longer had ownership of the houses and backed his argument with what Lindemann described as official-looking documents. But many of the houses were actually owned by Deutsche Bank, said Lindemann, a prosecutor with the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office’s Economic Crimes Bureau.

It took police several months to connect the dots. A grand jury had indicted Salamone on five counts of burglary, but two more counts were added when additional houses were discovered. He was also charged with grand larceny for the “rent” he received, and criminal possession of a forged instrument for filing more than a dozen fraudulent liens.
Salamone’s attorney, Eric Naiburg, admits that his client made a serious mistake, but insists he is not a crook.

“He had no right to be in these houses,” the Smithtown-based attorney said in his opening statement. “That is conceded. That he went into these houses with the intent to commit a crime, that is not conceded, not conceded at all.”

“If this was a scheme, it was dumb,” Naiburg said, adding that if Salamone was trying to scam people, as prosecutors allege, then “he is the worst scam artist this nation has ever seen.”

Source: The Long Island Press

What do you think of the defense attorneys statement? Salamone rented the homes out that wasn’t his, but Salamone did not intend to commit a crime? Huh?