Craigslist Scam – Vacation Rentals

[SD Realtor]

Man…. We have some friends coming in for a stay in September right after Labor day. They were thinking about renting a place down in Mission Beach. He told me a few spots he found on Craigslist and was about to send some money off but I told him to hold off while I did a bit of research…

Yowsa… Many many many scam attempts out there. Crazy stuff. My advice is to go with a known vacation rental management company. If it seems to good to be true. It is a scam.

[permabear]

I can vouch for that – a family friend actually just got taken by a Mission Beach scam on Craiglist! Lost all their vacation money. The scam was familiar: “My paypal account is down, so use Western Union to send me the rental fee.” They are not internet-savvy, so this didn’t set off alarm bells unfortunately. They didn’t find out they were scammed until they showed up at their supposed rental and a person answered the door saying, “May I help you?”

[permabear]

I can vouch for that – a family friend actually just got taken by a Mission Beach scam on Craiglist! Lost all their vacation money. The scam was familiar: “My paypal account is down, so use Western Union to send me the rental fee.” They are not internet-savvy, so this didn’t set off alarm bells unfortunately. They didn’t find out they were scammed until they showed up at their supposed rental and a person answered the door saying, “May I help you?”

[permabear]

I can vouch for that – a family friend actually just got taken by a Mission Beach scam on Craiglist! Lost all their vacation money. The scam was familiar: “My paypal account is down, so use Western Union to send me the rental fee.” They are not internet-savvy, so this didn’t set off alarm bells unfortunately. They didn’t find out they were scammed until they showed up at their supposed rental and a person answered the door saying, “May I help you?”

[permabear]

I can vouch for that – a family friend actually just got taken by a Mission Beach scam on Craiglist! Lost all their vacation money. The scam was familiar: “My paypal account is down, so use Western Union to send me the rental fee.” They are not internet-savvy, so this didn’t set off alarm bells unfortunately. They didn’t find out they were scammed until they showed up at their supposed rental and a person answered the door saying, “May I help you?”

[permabear]

I can vouch for that – a family friend actually just got taken by a Mission Beach scam on Craiglist! Lost all their vacation money. The scam was familiar: “My paypal account is down, so use Western Union to send me the rental fee.” They are not internet-savvy, so this didn’t set off alarm bells unfortunately. They didn’t find out they were scammed until they showed up at their supposed rental and a person answered the door saying, “May I help you?”

[SD Realtor]

Yep…

I guess I have a little advantage as I can look up who owns the home and some other details. The best filter mechanism is to simply ask the poster the name of the company they work for and the contact info. Then ask them a few questions about referrals and references.

Out of the 9 leads my friend sent me all 9 of them were scams and they all were like you mentioned, asking for a western union or moneygram payment upfront.

[SD Realtor]

Yep…

I guess I have a little advantage as I can look up who owns the home and some other details. The best filter mechanism is to simply ask the poster the name of the company they work for and the contact info. Then ask them a few questions about referrals and references.

Out of the 9 leads my friend sent me all 9 of them were scams and they all were like you mentioned, asking for a western union or moneygram payment upfront.

[SD Realtor]

Yep…

I guess I have a little advantage as I can look up who owns the home and some other details. The best filter mechanism is to simply ask the poster the name of the company they work for and the contact info. Then ask them a few questions about referrals and references.

Out of the 9 leads my friend sent me all 9 of them were scams and they all were like you mentioned, asking for a western union or moneygram payment upfront.

[SD Realtor]

Yep…

I guess I have a little advantage as I can look up who owns the home and some other details. The best filter mechanism is to simply ask the poster the name of the company they work for and the contact info. Then ask them a few questions about referrals and references.

Out of the 9 leads my friend sent me all 9 of them were scams and they all were like you mentioned, asking for a western union or moneygram payment upfront.

[SD Realtor]

Yep…

I guess I have a little advantage as I can look up who owns the home and some other details. The best filter mechanism is to simply ask the poster the name of the company they work for and the contact info. Then ask them a few questions about referrals and references.

Out of the 9 leads my friend sent me all 9 of them were scams and they all were like you mentioned, asking for a western union or moneygram payment upfront.

[bearishgurl]

In the case of timeshares, you can call the timeshare itself up and ask if Mr. and/or Ms. X is an owner for the week of Feb. 18-25, under the guise of being given permission to occupy the unit as their guest during their share-week.

I have had no problem with this and have done it 3x with success and have been very satisfied with the units I was able to use. But I have only dealt with well-established Silicon Valley owners of Lake Tahoe timeshares who had active paypal accounts.

Edit: all of the ads I responded to here were posted on SF bay craigslist.

[bearishgurl]

In the case of timeshares, you can call the timeshare itself up and ask if Mr. and/or Ms. X is an owner for the week of Feb. 18-25, under the guise of being given permission to occupy the unit as their guest during their share-week.

I have had no problem with this and have done it 3x with success and have been very satisfied with the units I was able to use. But I have only dealt with well-established Silicon Valley owners of Lake Tahoe timeshares who had active paypal accounts.

Edit: all of the ads I responded to here were posted on SF bay craigslist.

[bearishgurl]

In the case of timeshares, you can call the timeshare itself up and ask if Mr. and/or Ms. X is an owner for the week of Feb. 18-25, under the guise of being given permission to occupy the unit as their guest during their share-week.

I have had no problem with this and have done it 3x with success and have been very satisfied with the units I was able to use. But I have only dealt with well-established Silicon Valley owners of Lake Tahoe timeshares who had active paypal accounts.

Edit: all of the ads I responded to here were posted on SF bay craigslist.

[bearishgurl]

In the case of timeshares, you can call the timeshare itself up and ask if Mr. and/or Ms. X is an owner for the week of Feb. 18-25, under the guise of being given permission to occupy the unit as their guest during their share-week.

I have had no problem with this and have done it 3x with success and have been very satisfied with the units I was able to use. But I have only dealt with well-established Silicon Valley owners of Lake Tahoe timeshares who had active paypal accounts.

Edit: all of the ads I responded to here were posted on SF bay craigslist.

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