Spokane County deputies are currently investigating a craigslist scam that originates in Nigeria. A north Spokane County resident was surprised when a couple arrived at her residence inquiring about the rental ad posted on Craigslist for her house.
The problem is the owner is not trying to rent the house; she is trying to sell it and she has never posted an ad on Craigslist. Several other people have also stopped by the house asking about the rental.
The homeowner discovered the posting on Craigslist and after exchanging emails with the poster of the ad, learned the 'owner' was in Africa, had keys to the residence with them and required a minimum of first month rent and security deposit sent by Western Union totaling $1700.00.
Craigslist was made aware of this fraudulent posting by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office as well as by the homeowner. The ad has been removed from Craigslist.
This is a reminder to the public that if a Craigslist offer seems too good to be true, it may very well be.
The Sheriff's Office cannot stress the importance for citizens to take every step necessary to verify the source and validity of any type of sale agreement on this or any other similar type of website.
I have bought and sold many things, including my Harley, on CL but I went through several fake ads in the process. Each of the fakes are plenty obvious, at least to me, if you would look at each of them with at least *some* amount of skepticism.
thank god there were people smart enough to pass by the propery themselves. Problem is that this investigation will go nowhere… FBI won't pursue them to some African internet cafe for petty 1700$. Only thing you can do as a citizen is report it to FBI and the email of the scammer to http://emailbusters.org