Remember how the guy from Nigeria was kicked out yet he has millions of dollars holed away and needs your help – and your money – to rescue the funds?  You’ll be cut in on a sweet percentage of the loot if you’ll just wire $10,000 to a bank account.

The same scammers are now taking advantage of Craigs List and renting homes that are already owned and occupied by someone else.  The FBI issued this Housing Scam Alert,

The criminals search websites that list homes for sale. They take the information in those ads—lock, stock, and barrel—and post it, with their own e-mail address, in an ad on Craigslist (without Craigslist’s consent or knowledge) under the housing rentals category. To sweeten the pot, the houses are almost always listed with below-market rental rates.

An interested party will contact the “homeowner” via e-mail, who usually explains that he or she had to leave the U.S. quickly because of some missionary or contract work in Africa. Victims are usually instructed to send money overseas—enough to cover the first and last month’s rent—via a wire transfer service (because the crooks know it can’t be traced once it gets picked up on the other end).

Be careful what you rent, be careful how you advertise a house for sale!