The number of fake rental scams on Craigslist and other online classifieds continues to grow, with new aliases appearing daily. But while the names may change, the methods are always the same.
These thieves, mainly based in Nigeria, the U.K. and the U.S., are out to steal your money and your identity.
They use yahoo, ymail, rocketmail, fastermail, live, hotmail and gmail, and they also post ads under anonymous craigslist addresses. They frequently change their aliases.
They use photos stolen from other property advertisements or from home furnishing catalogues or hotel websites.
They use fake names, often stolen from Facebook profiles or networking sites. Often they assume the identities of previous victims.