Even in the land of paradise there are craigslist scammers. Leslie Dean of Hawaii found that out recently…
For Leslie Dean, a single parent looking for housing, the online ad offer seemed ideal: $800 in rent for a three-bedroom house in Kahana near shopping, restaurants, beaches and golf.
“I happened upon one of those too-good-to-be-true deals,” she said.
She soon learned it was exactly that.
Responding to the posting on the free advertising Web site Craigslist, she began corresponding by e-mail this month with “Bello A.” He claimed to be a “successful petroleum engineer” who had “urgently” moved his family to West Africa for his new business before he could make arrangements to rent the three-year-old house. Explaining the low price, he said he was more interested in finding someone “who can promise us good maintenance and take the house like his or her own.”
After soliciting personal information, including her name, age, occupation, address and telephone number, “Bello A.” said he would “ship” the house keys to Dean once she wired an $800 “commitment fee” to him in Nigeria.
Thankfully Ms. Dean did not fall for the scam.
But obviously people have or esle the scam wouldn’t keep perpetuating.
Local Realtors and law enforcement in Hawaii say that the scam is only appearing through craigslist. I wonder why that is. It couldn’t be the total anonymity could it? You would think that faceless and nameless people on the internet would be the most honest people in the world. Of course I must be a corporate shill for the newspapers since I’m pointing out craigslist’s obvious flaws which allow criminal activity to flourish. I’m awaiting the cult of craig to descend upon me any minute.
