Craigslist Rental Scams.

I recently received an unusual request from a prospective tenant He said he was interested in renting an apartment I had listed on Craigslist, but first, he wanted me to show him written evidence that I owned the building. He said he had read several articles about scam artists who claimed to own apartments and collected rent and security deposits from would-be tenants and then disappeared with their money. I told this guy that I have also read articles about this.

If 10 years ago an applicant for an apartment asked me to show him evidence that I owned the building I was renting, I would have thought that he was some kind of nut, but Craigslist rental scams are now so common that I don’t think that a request like this is unreasonable. I told this guy that I would bring a copy of my current property tax bill with me when I showed him the apartment, which I did. I think requests like this are going to become more and more common in the future. I am sure that there are landlords who would be offended by a request like this, but not me. Craigslist provides a wonderful service for both landlords and tenants, and a free service at that; however, Craigslist does not vet the listings on their web site, and unfortunately, there are a lot of very smart people in this world who spend their lives figuring out new ways to cheat and rob other people, and it seems like almost all of them know how to use Craigslist.