ALLENDALE, Mich. —
Hunting for the perfect home in a hot market can be a hassle.
“We found on Craigslist that someone had posted a lot of our pictures putting the rent for $770 or something like that, and we were like, 'we're not renting our houses,'” said Kim Breuker, owner of West Michigan Real Estate.
It's a process made even worse when scammers, often overseas, are on the prowl.
“I actually got customers calling me up saying, ‘Hey are you renting your houses? We saw it on Craigslist,' and I said no," Breuker said.
After several unsuccessful attempts to reach Craigslist, Bruker took matters into her own hands, posing as a potential renter.
“He wanted pictures of our kids, pictures of family, he wanted pictures of our bank accounts," Breuker said. "He wanted our Social Security number.”
According to the Better Business Bureau, this is a very common scam.
“Scammers will ask for your deposit down, the first month, last month rent, and they'll rent it to a whole bunch of people before disappearing,” said Troy Baker with BBB Serving Western Michigan
There are signs you can look out for to avoid becoming the next victim.
“This is a brand new built house, not the type of house that typically gets rented out," Baker said. "The second is the price of $777 a month for a $270,000 house in Allendale. That's not what you'd expect to pay for a rental that you're going to get in that area.”
He also recommends people do their research.
"Do a Google Images search of the photo on the listing," Baker said. "If you do that, in this case, you'll find that it's actually listed for sale on a number of websites and isn't for rent anywhere else."
Baker suggests making sure you are dealing with the real owner of the home.
"Look up the address. Most counties list property records and you can do a quick look-up by address and see who owns the home," Baker said. "If it's really for rent contact that person ask."
But it’s not just the person looking to rent that faces possible repercussions.
“The owners of the property become victims in this because they're also getting knocked on by people that think they've rented a place and they haven't,” Baker said.
It's a problem that doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
“We have three different developments and they're doing all three,” Breuker said.
She has tried reaching out to Craigslist since this started happening a few weeks ago.
"I just basically want Craigslist to take these listings down," Breuker said.
Craigslist has not yet responded to our message asking for comment.
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