Newspaper classifieds have a friend in scammers. Though hemorrhaging sales to Craigslist, fraudulent posters there may drive legitimate businesspeople back to where they’ve done business for decades.
Gwen Mathews, for example, is a real estate agent for Re/Max Creative in Lexington, Kentucky, and not an X-ray welder working for a Nigerian ship building company. Gwen the real estate agent has a cute little house available for rent near campus for $990 a month. Gwen the welder has the same house for just $700, presumably a cut in price because Gwen the welder is in a real bind and has to get back to Nigeria immediately.
Gwen the welder doesn’t seem aware there are no seaports in Kentucky, nor that there is more than one United State, but asks you to contact her anyway “on #0112347023377964,” whatever that means.
In case you bought the story, it would have been wise to return to craigslist for a follow-up. A warning there reads:
There are some ads posted by gwenmathews74@yahoo.com, they are a scammer. They will ask you to wire money and mail you the keys. This is a new scam where people will list houses that are not actually for rent and that they do not own and request you to wire money to them in exchange for the keys.
Gwen the real estate agent, if you give her a call at her real Lexington phone number, is happy to tell you that’s not her email address, and that the house is actually for rent if you’re interested. She’s not so happy to tell you she’s won’t be posting her ads on craigslist anymore.
“Which is sad,” she says, “because we’ve had real success there. Maybe it’s a rental referral place trying to put us out of business.”
Gwen’s words reveal the other side of the craigslist fraud issue: the professional reputation side. News stories of scams on craigslist have focused on protecting the consumer, but not much has been said about the potential impact on professional reps. Even Gwen’s photo was used.
“If you write an article on this,” says Gwen the real estate agent, “please say I am not a fraudulent scammer!”
Deal. Gwen Mathews is not a fraudulent scammer.
Gwen was aware of the scam before we contacted her. The same thing had happened a couple of weeks prior, when she had another job. Luckily she has friends nearby to flag the listing and write warnings. She emailed craigslist about it the first time it happened, and says they responded quickly by deleting it. Her only concern beyond what’s already been mentioned is that the two young women who live there now will receive some surprise visits.
It’s hard to tell if Gwen the welder based her scam entirely on a legitimate listing—the fraudulent listing came complete with interior and exterior photos—or was savvy enough to access publicly available records online. Given Gwen the welder’s general ignorance of US geography, though, it seems likely to be the former.
Craigslist posts a set of warnings and guidelines about scammers. Among them are specific warnings about only dealing with people you can meet in person and never dealing with a “distant person” who asks customers to wire money.
Other than that, the online classifieds site has little to suggest as a remedy, whether it be a plan to charge for listings in the future or a more effective way to vet advertisers. Craigslist did not respond to request for comment.
