Viral Post Shows How Landlord Deals With Craigslist Rental Scams

There has to be no worse feeling than arriving at the place you’re supposed to be spending your vacation, only to discover that you were duped. Vacation rental scams have been on the rise in recent years, and the authorities have been working to educate people about how to safely book a place to stay.

However, sometimes people can still get tricked into paying for a rental place that they can’t actually access, either because it doesn’t exist or because the person who collected the payment to rent the property out doesn’t actually own it in the first place.

As such, landlords are finding unique ways to deal with these situations when they arise. Threads user @sacappraiser shared an example that he discovered when he went to stay at an Airbnb location recently. The post quickly went viral on Threads, with people asking questions and sharing their own horror stories.

Fortunately, the original poster was quick to clarify that he didn’t have any issues with his rental, but instead this was likely evidence that the landlord had dealt with scams in the past.

An Airbnb Property Had a Sign Instructing Some Guests to Call the Police

 

 

View on Threads

 

The Threads post contained a photo of a sign that said, “If you rented this house on Craigslist, you have been scammed! Contact the local police, SLTPD 530-542-6100.” The poster included a caption with the picture, explaining how the sign had appeared on the outside of a rental property in Tahoe.

People were initially confused about the post and assumed the Threads user had been duped, but he quickly explained that all was well; he just found it interesting that they had to put a sign up in the first place.

People Shared Their Own Horror Stories

The comments quickly started filling up with messages from people who had been part of real estate scams in the past. “My house, which I own and live in 100 percent of the time, was briefly posted as a rental on Craigslist and people showed up,” one person wrote, calling the situation “unnerving.”

“My last house, people kept renting it from a scammer,” another person shared. “It was incessant. People showing up constantly, ringing the doorbell, sometimes getting very angry with me. One lady showed up with a full moving van. More than one person tried to push their way in. Had a newborn baby at home with me at the time. I understand the need for the sign… our nightmare only ended when we repainted the house a different color!”

Stay Safe From Scammers

Scams like this are common enough that Airbnb even has a section on its website to help combat it, especially when it comes to “off-platform activity.” Basically, the rental service says that anything that has to do with an Airbnb property, including communications and payment, among other things, has to take place on their platform.

So, if you’re looking to rent an Airbnb property and it appears on Craigslist, chances are that it’s a scam, and you should contact Airbnb directly to find out how you can legitimately reserve the property.