Do you plan to sell your home soon, or already have it on the market? If you do, you might want to be aware of a growing scam that is so easy to pull off you can expect to see a sharp rise as the housing market continues to struggle for air.

A homeowner called me to report that when he arrived home yesterday morning, he found a young couple at his front door asking to take a look around the house he had for rent.

He quickly explained that they made a simple mistake – his house was in fact for sale, not for rent. But it is for rent, the visitors corrected him, and showed him the ad they printed off Craigslist.

And sure enough, there was his house, in fine detail, including photos, advertised for rent on Craigslist. And at the knock-down price of just $1,200 a month for a completely remodeled 3-bedroomed home in a very nice neighborhood. The ad even had his correct name, although with an email address he didn’t recognize.

This kind of scam is growing nationwide, and while it requires a little creativity on the part of the thieves, the payoff can be worth it. The thieves use the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, that realtors across the country use to list homes for sale, and simply select at random homes they want to target.

They then create phony ads using the real information from the selected listings, keeping the real address, and offer to rent the property at an unbelievably low price to the right renter. They usually offer some kind of excuse for the low price and sense of urgency, like the owner just got a great job offer abroad and wants to get a tenant in quickly.

What the thieves want is the personal information of the interested tenants – their names, addresses, phone numbers, and employers. They’ll even ask for a Social Security number so they can run a credit check on the potential tenant and get them into their dream home as quickly as possible.

A single advertisement can ensnare potentially dozens of victims at a time, and the first time the victims realize they’ve been duped is when an irate homeowner tells them to get out of his yard.

But it can get even trickier. In one version of the scam, the thieves try to go one step further and trick the innocent tenant into paying a cash deposit to hold the property for them. The thieves are preying on one human weakness that is the secret ingredient for so many scams – the willingness to ignore the obvious warning signals when a deal appears too good to be true.

In this case, the homeowner had to deal with a number of unwelcomed callers before Craigslist took down the fake ad, and he worries that some of the disgruntled home hunters may become violent and blame him.

Lessons learned?

• The best way to protect yourself against all kinds of scams is to follow one simple golden rule – if in any way it doesn’t sound right, logical, or legal, it probably isn’t and you should probably pass on it.
• Never give your personal information to a complete stranger, no matter how convincing they sound or how desperate you feel. Do your research first.

Related posts:

1. In the Headlines: Facebook “PLEASE SEND ME MONEY” Scams on the Rise
2. Mortage Tips
3. IN THE HEADLINES: Still Making Our Identity Too Easy for Thieves
4. Why Black Friday Could Be a Red Carpet for Scammers
5. The IDGuardian Podcast: Episode #004 — Why Black Friday Could Be a Red Carpet for Scammers