Um...his name escapes me at this time.

Man arrested after 9NEWS investigates Craigslist scam:

I love this article by 9NEWS in Colorado, apparently they’re rather proud of themselves for getting a craigslist scammer locked up. It seems that an investigation they did led to the arrest of one 39-year-old NATHANIEL MARSHALL of Aurora.

NATHANIEL MARSHALL was allegedly renting out a condo that not only wasn’t his but was for sale.

This is the typical craigslist rental scam where someone claims to be renting out a property at a bargain price when the property is usually for sale. NATHANIEL MARSHALL is not the first scammer to be busted but it’s usually someone from overseas. NATHANIEL MARSHALL.

The fight isn’t over yet. Help spread the word on craigslist and backpage crime by winning a free CraigsCrimeList T-Shirt.

Craigslist crime post #1440
Real Estate post #104

Condemned home leaves family homeless:

A family from Cleveland, Ohio rented a home in Decatur, AL that they found on craigslist. The family moved south in order to find work but when they got to the house it wasn’t exactly in the condition they thought it would be.

Not only were there repair workers living in the house but the house was in such bad condition it’s been condemned leaving the family homeless.

The homeowner is saying that he has never had any contact with the family which wouldn’t be surprising considering how craigslist real estate scams work and the scam artists have no heart whatsoever and don’t care if a family is left homeless. All they care about is stealing the money from their victims.

Again a moderated classifieds site with user profiles would go a long way in discouraging these scams.

Safer classifieds at Geebo.com.

The fight isn’t over yet. Help spread the word on craigslist and backpage crime by winning a free CraigsCrimeList T-Shirt.

Craigslist crime post #1439
Real Estate post #103

Online rental scammers: The Real Deal:

Residents in the Syracuse, New York area are being warned of a real estate scam on craigslist that could steal your identity.

In this scam it starts off with a phony ad being placed on craigslist except the ad is copied from a legitimate realtor. When you contact the person who placed the ad they send you to a website that they say is intended to get your credit report when in reality it’s set up just to steal your information.

My friends at Geebo tell me that the technology exists to remove ads like this before they ever get posted. Take a look at their site: trench.co.

Don’t forget to enter to win your own CCL T-Shirt.

Craigslist crime post #1259
Real Estate post #98
Scam post #186

I had an e-mail conversation today with a reader who had a very harrowing experience while trying to rent an apartment from a landlord that advertised on craigslist.

Her first e-mail to me said that the landlord had been arrested and was advertising again on craigslist and was there somewhere that this could be reported? My Reply was that you can try to flag the ad but that won’t guarantee that anything will be done about it. Or you could post an ad of your own telling of your experience with this landlord but that could get your ad flagged and removed. So basically I told her that her only real recourse was to notify law enforcement as craigslist will more than likely do nothing about it.

Out of curiosity I asked why the landlord was arrested and she told me that in a nutshell the landlord provided no written agreement and constantly went back on their verbal agreement. When the tenant demanded her money back a scuffle ensued and the landlord ended up assaulting the tenant.

She now regrets using craigslist to rent and even went as far as to tell me that if you are going to rent anyplace to do a background check on your prospective landlord.

We don’t have to put up with this. Boycott Craigslist. Try Geebo.com for a socially responsible alternative to community classifieds.

Don’t forget to enter to win your own CCL T-Shirt.

Craigslist crime post #1257
Real Estate post #97

Craigslist can also be a haven for scams:

Besides obvious headline being obvious this article provides a lesson to be learned.

It’s basically your usual fake check scam where a woman in Sebring, Florida was trying to rent a property on craigslist and received two checks and was asked the wire the difference via Western Union.

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that checks over the asking amount and being asked to wire money are two huge red flags of a craigslist scam.

Luckily the woman was smart enough not to fall for the scam. However it seems that her friends are not the sharpest tools in the crayon box. They allegedly advised her to deposit the checks so the scammer can be charged with fraudulent check writing. That is possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard when it comes to these scams. Surprisingly this is not the first time I’ve heard this. So let me repeat this and be perfectly clear.

Don’t ever cash a check that was sent to you that was over the asking amount…ever.

If you cash or deposit the checks and they turn out to be fakes you will be held responsible for that money to your bank. The scammer will more than likely not ever br prosecuted because for the most part they operate outside of the country and are very difficult to prosecute.

As I’ve said before the more knowledge that is out there for people not to fall for these scams then the scammers will stop trying to prey on people. Unfortunately that is the only way to stop them.