A common Craigslist scam is real estate fraud. A South Carolina woman hoping to move to the Savannah area was victimized by a scam artist purporting to be a missionary in Nigeria. She lost her security deposit for a house that exactly matched what she was seeking - a three bedroom house in a kid-friendly neighborhood.

A similar scheme hit South Carolina a few years ago, prompting the FBI and local law enforcement to issue warnings to potential renters. Here's how this particular version of Craigslist fraud works: houses that are really for sale are identified on the Internet and the details of the owner and location are extracted from public web sites. So the owner, location, photo, etc., are real. Only the person with whom the prospective renter corresponds is fraudulent.

In this particular incident, the scammer was indeed African, making it difficult for South Carolina or federal law enforcement to take action. And even when the scam is orchestrated in the U.S., it is often difficult to determine the true identify of the person at the other end of the email. However, local law enforcement and real estate agents monitor Craigslist in an effort to identify potential scam artists.

The would-be Savannah resident learned that she had been cheated when she turned up the children of the alleged seller, who told her that their father had died the previous year and that they were selling his house.

Internet vacation rentals on Craigslist are another fruitful area for scammers. The bottom line: if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

Source: Savannah Mnorning News, "Craigslist scammers working local rental market", by Adam Van Brimmer, Nov. 17, 2011.