Craigslist’s Apartment Rental Scams Be Wary

Craigslist’s Apartment Rentals Listing Scams Why Be Careful

Craigslist’s apartment rental scams have surfaced. Don’t fall victim to Craigslist’s apartment rental scams. You know the saying, “if it sounds to good to be true then, it probably is”. According to recent study this rings true for affordable studio apartments listings found on Craigslist apartment search. According to a recent study, it was discovered that Craigslist only deletes partial suspicious apartment rentals listings that winds up on it’s apartment finder site. This according to Damon McCoy an assistant professor of computer and engineering at New York University and two other professors who states, Craigslist removes “less than half of the suspicious listings”.

Mr. McCoy went on to say that in a survey of Craigslist’s apartment rental listings in twenty cities including New York, 1 to 2 percent turned out to be fake.

According to the researchers “about 29,000 scam listings over the 20 cities were monitored in 141 days “.

Researchers found fraudulent Craigslist housing apartment advertisement on the apartment finder real estate property listings site which either didn’t exist or included the advertising of properties that were either not available or belonged to the one advertising it while a request for upfront payment fees were made. Although one or two percent is not that serious, McCoy states that the percentage is greater. He further explains, “Scam listings are going to remain posted until they are flagged or expire, so using the search and map feature of Craigslist might locate more scams, assuming that legitimate listings are rented quickly and taken down by the poster before they expire. “McCoy explained.

Craigslist stated that based on compiled research, “out of the roughly 10 million housing ads posted in those 20 major cities on Craigslist in 141 days, that works out to 0.3 %.” So whether your apartment search is for one bedroom apartments, luxury apartments or 2 bedroom apartments, the best apartment website finder will never require you to shell out up front fees; so, be careful when searching for apartments to rent. There are many rental apartments out there, some of them are furnished apartments and they do not require payment of any fees before moving in.