The scammer will find a property for sale using a real estate search engine like hicentral.com or Prudential Locations Real Estate Search. They copy the details of a property into a craigslist ad, and advertise the property for rent well below market. When a prospective victim replies to the ad, they are told the owner is out of town, and they need to wire the deposit to the out of state address and then they will be shipped the keys. The victim wires the money and never receives the keys.

If you are using craigslist to find rentals, never wire money for the deposit, meet your prospective landlord in person and make sure you have a signed rental agreement.

As usual, if it sounds too good to be true, it probaly is.

Post from: Hawaii Real Estate Reporter

Beware Hawaii Craigslist Real Estate Rental Scammers