an apartment on Craigslist - not so fast
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
It seems that Craigslist isn't just hookers and bogus sports tickets: scammer rings are now faking apartment ads.
Some people in our neighbourhood found an ad on Craigslist for an entire house being rented out here in Toronto's Beaches. They responded to the ad by email and were soon on the phone with the fellow, who told by the owner that he's unable to show the place at short notice because just after having bought the place, he's been sent to South Africa on a sudden work assignment. He'll now be away from the house for three years, hence the rental. He then told them that they could drop by and have a look from the outside and let him know if they wanted to consider it.
So they went, and were able to peer in through the windows at the empty house. Everything seemed to be in order, in fact it was in excellent condition. Knowing the neighbourhood to some extent, our friends asked some contacts on the street if they knew anything about the house. They only learned that it had changed hands recently.
When our friends called the owner back, things appeared to proceed in a semi-normal fashion. He sent them a lease to sign and said he'd send the key once he saw the first month's rent as deposit.
This isn't of course, how things typically go in this city. For one thing, landlords universally ask for first and last month's rent as a deposit. Secondly, it's very unusual (though not completely unheard of) to rent a place out without having the renter see the unit. When our friends sent another email asking to see the inside of the apartment, the response was that they could return the key for a full refund if they didn't like the apartment, and by the way the owner could be trusted because he works in a way that respects God.
Huh?
A quick check of the fellow's phone number revealed that he wasn't in South Africa but in Nigeria. They'd been speaking live to a member of that country's seemingly ever-expanding free market for international fraud.
And it had started with an apartment listing in Toronto.
Learning from this ridiculous tale, I see three tip-offs that the whole thing is a fraud.
1. Not being able to see the apartment in the usual way (that is, being asked to turn up at an inconvenient time like 16:45 on a Tuesday, only to turn up and find that the place is rented out or that there's a queue of other apartment-seekers).
2. The absence of a request for first-and-last-months' rent.
3. Craigslist.
Kudos to our friends for doing the double-check on the country code.
Pro tip to the Nigerian scammers: Canadian expats are very unlikely to reference God during a rental transaction.