Craigslist scam tries to steal data and cash

Honolulu police are warning renters to be wary of scam artists who attempt to gain sensitive personal information or even money via the Internet.

Roger Wong said that’s what happened when he put his three-bedroom house in Hawaii Kai up for sale last week on the Prudential Locations website.

Wong said photos of his house were spotted by friends looking for rentals while scanning ads on Craigslist, the San Francisco-based classified ad site.

At the same time, Wong’s real estate agent, Michelle Nouchi Ogata, said she began hearing from fellow agents about the Craigslist rental listing on the house she had just put on the market.

The would-be scammer had copied the photos of Wong’s home from the Prudential site and used them to create a rental listing on Craigslist.

"They took everything that Prudential made and they pretty much cut-and-paste it on Craigslist," Wong said Wednesday.

Wong contacted the person trying to rent out his house via email. The person responded by asking Wong to fill out an application that required he put down sensitive financial information, as well as one month’s rent and a security deposit. The person also sent along a telephone number.

When Wong searched the telephone number over the Internet, he noticed the same number was used as a contact for rentals in other U.S. cities.

At that point, Wong contacted Honolulu Police Department detectives.

Lt. John McCarthy, head of the Criminal Investigations Division’s white collar detail, estimated that his office had been averaging about two to three complaints per week about such scams, but that they’ve increased in frequency lately.

He estimated Oahu residents lose tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars annually when they are asked to wire money through untraceable means such as Western Union.

Last week, he said, a woman was convicted of stealing $60,000 through a similar scam in Kailua, McCarthy said.

"The scheme is complex and it takes advantage of a vulnerable part of the population," he said.

In Wong’s case, the thief pretended to be Wong by using the homeowner’s name to create a "spoof" email address at yahoo.com. In essence, Wong got an email from "himself."

"That’s what really concerned me," he said.

The telephone number Wong was given, which had a California area code, was traced to a number issued free by Skype.

HPD is working to get information from Craigslist and Skype, McCarthy said.

He urged prospective renters to work with local agents and Realtors when possible, check and verify both the validity of the lister and rental property by searching online and elsewhere, and to conduct transactions with a lister in person.

Clues of potentially fake listings include bad or unprofessional English skills and too-good-to-be-true rental prices. The person attempting to rent Wong’s home was offering it at a steep discount to entice potential renters.

Wong said his home was listed for sale on July 31 and that he was contacted by friends about the rental listing the next day.

"They’re in and out quickly," McCarthy said. "They’re doing multiple listings as fast as they can."