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Ad Stolen For Web Scam, Woman Says
Woman: Ad Caused Unwanted Prospective Tenants To Show Up
POSTED: 4:09 pm EST December 4,
2008
UPDATED: 7:45 pm EST December 4,
2008
ROCKY HILL, Conn. -- A Rocky Hill woman said a stranger is listing her house for rent on Craigslist.com.Elisabeth Medaris said someone appears to have stolen images from her old online posting and is using them in an effort to get people to send money by Western Union to Nigeria.Medaris and her husband were trying to rent their house in Rocky Hill recently and posted an ad on Craigslist.com.“I came home one day and somebody was in my driveway, and we had already arranged to rent the home to another family and they said, ‘We saw this ad on Craigslist. Is this the house?’ And I said, ‘Well, we were renting it, but we're no longer renting it,’” Medaris said.
After a little online checking, Medaris said she found her house was still listed as for rent, but the newer ad wasn't hers.“First of all, they used an e-mail address that wasn't mine,” she said. “They copied and pasted the entire ad. It was pretty close, pretty close to the original.”One of the people who answered the phony ad sent Medaris the reply they received. Medaris said the poorly worded message claimed to be from a couple who went to "Africa for a missionary work." The letter said they promised to send the keys to any "God fearing person" who would wire the security deposit and first month’s rent to Nigeria.“I was really scared,” Medaris said. “We're private people. We didn't really like people coming to our house and checking things out and it's a little off-putting, and then I realized the worst part of it was that people could actually fall for it.”Medaris said she and her husband contacted Craigslist and had several of these phony ads taken down, but they continued popping up. Every so often, she said, the couple had an uninvited, unannounced prospective tenant walking right up their driveway to take a look.“As recently as a couple days ago, my tenant told me a van stopped by the house,” Medaris said.Medaris said she posted scam alerts online, but the so-called Nigerian scams are everywhere.When the Channel 3 I-Team uncovered a scam involving puppies, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal explained why wiring money anywhere is so dangerous.“Once the money is wired, it disappears and will never be traced or recovered, essentially, because it's anonymous,” Blumenthal said.She said she just hopes someone won't show up someday to move in, having already sent money overseas.
Previous Stories:
- Nov. 13, 2008: 2 Charged With Online Prostitution
- Nov. 12, 2008: Woman: Scam Preys On Owners Of Lost Pets
- Nov. 6, 2008: AG: Craigslist To Crack Down On Prostitution
- Sept. 26, 2008: Citizens: We Were Scammed Out Of Money
- August 22, 2008: Internet Ads Lead To Prostitution Arrests
- April 8, 2008: Police: Woman Sold Self Online
- March 27, 2008: AG Targets Explicit Ads On Craigslist
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