RENT SCAM - Help!! I am afraid for my mother.

[Trinemoon]

DEAR SCAM BAITERS:

My husband and I have in the few years begun our venture into buying, fixing up, and selling homes. One of the homes we rehabbed eventually became my mother’s home – she currently lives there. Before she moved into the home, we had the full intention of fixing the home up and selling it. To that end, we placed an ad / notice on the internet, a typical real estate listing with a few pictures. The listing has since been removed along with the pictures we put up.

We had actually forgotten about the ad once my mother moved into the house. The reason we remembered and subsequently removed the ad was because some complete strangers showed up at my mother’s house walking around the house, peeking in windows, trying doors, coming into the back yard through the fence, knocking on the door and asking to see the property, etc. This was our first encounter with the scam and it happened within days of my mother moving in – that was the middle of February 2010. My mother explained that the ad was not current or valid and that the house was not for rent or sale – we still did not really understand what was going on, she thought maybe these people we looking at residual ads that were put up for the house before my mother moved in.
After the first “renters” showed up, we of course scoured the internet and made sure all for sale / lease ads associated with the house were removed. Since the first encounter, however, there have been tons of people showing up at the house and little by little my mother realized that the people showing up were not responding to ads my husband had up, but to current ads being placed on Craigslist. At approximately week and half intervals since the first encounter, people have been showing up – anywhere from five to fifteen separate incidents each time – with the full intention of renting the house my mother lives in. About half of the people who have showed up already believe they are the rightful new renters of the house, because they have sent a $500.00 deposit to someone posing as the owner.
So now my mother has been over and over again put in the position of explaining to people that they have just been scammed out of $500.00. We have done everything we can think of to stop this scam, but everything we have tried ends up being futile. We flag the post on Craigslist, but they show up again a week later with a new batch of “renters” showing up at my mother’s house. We have contacted the local police who will not even take a complaint, nor will they return phone calls. We have contacted Craigslist and Craigslist attorneys and they claim to not be responsible for actions resulting from post. We have contacted attorneys to find out if we can do something from a legal standpoint to prevent Craigslist from posting ads concerning my mother’s house. Attorneys over and over again have informed us that because Craigslist has a fraud alert posted that they have legally protected themselves and cannot legally be held accountable. We have responded to the ad and tried to talk to the scammer / scammers directly – to beg for mercy and of course that has not helped.

However, when my husband did contact the scammer, that is when he first found out the scam was being run by someone living in Nigeria. That is when I did some research on the internet and first found out about the so called Nigerian Rent Scam. With the newfound information, we contacted all of the above people again and also contacted the FBI, who told us to threaten Craigslist with a lawsuit… and once again the lawyers said that we had no legal way to take action against Craigslist. Despite the continuing presence and nuisance of “renters” showing up at my mother’s house, local law enforcement is not interested in being of any assistance. We have contacted local news agencies and the papers and they say they did a story on this scam about four years ago and they are not interested in running a story on it again. Even the people being scammed – the ones who have paid money thinking they will be renting my mother’s house – have all so far refused to file complaints with the proper channels. They are one time victims and see the reporting of the scam as too much hassle I guess, while my mother is being victimized again and again by these potential “renters.” It seems we have no recourse at all – none!
My mother has become fearful that it is just a matter of time that someone will show up and do her family or her home harm, because she is the only real live person that these people that have been scammed are seeing – she is the point of contact as far as they are concerned. Desperate people do desperate things. Already the people who have showed up have taken down trespassing signs - removed notices - freely walked around the house – looked in and tried to open windows – jiggled door handles – come in through the back gate – let the dog out – climbed the fence – knocked on neighbor’s doors, etc… For safety reasons my mother got a second dog with a personality geared towards protecting her and her home. The dog has already gone after a fifteen year old girl who came over the gate in an attempt to see inside the house that she and her mother believed they had rented. Fortunately, my mother was home and able to call the dog off, but the dog was bought for protection and while he is a good dog – he will only obey his owner, my mother… and if my mother had not been there, then who knows how that incident might have turned out.

We seem to have no options left. In an attempt to prevent people from feeling free to trespass onto my mother’s property and to hopefully garner some attention from the media, we have designed a VERY large banner (6 x 2.5 feet) to be placed in my mother’s front yard. We are also designing fliers detailing the contact information of the local police, the FBI, Craigslist, etc… anybody we think of that might be helpful to the people showing up at my mother’s house. New gate locks and trespassing signs are being ordered. Between the attorney fees, the new dog, the new locks, the security signs, etc… everything we have done to prevent this scam and to keep strangers off the property – we are racking up quite a bit of out of pocket expense. We are the victims that nobody cares about, because we were not the ones who sent money off to another country to rent a house from someone we have not ever met. I am now also monitoring the current Craigslist ads with Craiglook at http://craiglook.com

Below is a link to the two most current ads placed by the scammer. Maybe, just maybe, one of your scam baiters can give this scammer at least a taste of the headache he has put my family through.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/apa/1743827014.html - Update 5/29/2010 FINALLY REMOVED BY CRAIGSLIST
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/apa/1714009475.html - Update 5/29/2010 FINALLY REMOVED BY CRAIGSLIST
http://www.facebook.com/Trinemoon#!/photo.php?pid=31344205&op=1&view=all&subj=399789261260&aid=-1&auser=0&oid=399789261260&id=1093698027 - Screenshot of actual posting.

Also, you may appreciate the banner we designed... here is a link. Thank you in advance for all your help and effort!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31338138&l=2625846dcd&id=1093698027