craigslist east bay housing

raigslist.com is a great way to fill your needs. You benefit from the trust that the internet gives you because you’re not dealing with an agent. The downside is that many of the people who come to view your property may not be exactly who you’re looking for.

post

Scammers grab photos of apartments from websites such as Zillow, Trulia, the multiple listing service (MLS), or other legitimate real estate websites that actually advertised the home in the past. They then create a fake rental ad with a fake low price with these photos demonstrating the attributes of the listing. Because scammers are grabbing real photos second-hand, often from a small preview size, the re-posted photos in scam ads are sometimes highly pixilated and may even have a property management company or MLS

page

By my unscientific count, 16 out of 120 listings on the first page of shared rooms on Craigslist San Francisco looked fraudulent. By a scientific count from an NYU study that examined 2 million Craigslist ads, my results are fairly representative of the whole: the company flags 6% for removal, but only caught 47% of the frauds (Craigslist did not respond to multiple emails).