Beware of "Furniture" Scam on CraigsList postings

If you have not received an email about a leasing prospect needing furniture, watch out and if you receive responses from Craigslist similar to this, do not write any checks to anyone!

If you currently have your home listed for sale and/or rent-to-own on ANY popular website (CraigsList, Rental Properties, Buy Owner, etc.) please be aware of a scam that has been making the rounds for most of this past year. Please read the following email from an investor friend's blog in Chicago:

"This specific scam is originating out of cyber cafes located in the little known Republic of Liberia (you are probably more familiar with the Republic of Nigeria to the east, and the popular e:mail scams that promise huge payouts from the Nigerian lottery, or requests from a Nigerian diplomat who needs assistance in moving cash out of his country). This scam is much less obvious and rather brilliant in its simplicity, and if the bad guys grab your cash, not only will you never see your money again, but you will find that there are no law enforcement agencies willing or even able to help you get it back.

The scam works like this: After posting your property on the internet, you will receive an e:mail from a prominent-sounding physician or other corporate professional from overseas. This person claims he will be coming to the states to work for a year, and that after seeing your listing he thinks your property is perfect for him and his family. As an act of good faith and to demonstrate the seriousness of his interest, he offers to send you a cashier's check for the entire year's worth of rent up- front.

Sounds great, right? How could you possibly be scammed when a cashier's check is involved?

Once you agree to the deal, the doctor will ask via e:mail that you now deal directly with his "financier" (key word to look for), who will handle all the money and contract details from this point forward. At this crucial point you are approaching the danger zone, because the doctor will request what seems to be innocent-enough contact information from you so he can put you in touch with his financier (like your full name, street address, and business and/or home phone number).

As the doctor's move-in date approaches, you will be advised that the family is having furniture delivered (which is right at about the same time your check is scheduled to arrive). As promised by the financier, you receive a cashier's check in the mail for one year's rent that looks 100% authentic and legitimate. If you grew up in Chicago like I did, you also would have had some exposure to graft and corruption. But when I tell you that I could not believe this perfect piece of paper was a fake check, I am not kidding.

You deposit the check, and about a week later, the financier calls in distress. He screwed-up the payment to the furniture company, and the doctor's wife will lose her mind if the furniture delivery is delayed. Would you PLEASE help him out and contact the furniture company rep to see what needs to be done. You will be put in touch with a very nice person from Ashley Furniture Company (who will send very authentic-looking e:mails with the actual company logo), who will instruct you how to wire the payment for the furniture directly to the company to ensure timely delivery for the good doctor and his stressed wife.

The financier cannot thank you enough for saving him, and agrees to immediately forward another cashier's check to cover the amount you wired to the furniture company (anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000). Most people who have been taken by this scam only hesitate briefly before wiring the money, as they have already "cashed" the doctor's check, they are sitting on a year's worth of prepaid rent and the dollar amount for the furniture is small in comparison, and believe that if the check were fake it would have bounced already.

The cashier's check from the good doctor bounces roughly three weeks after the homeowner deposits it (contrary to popular belief, it takes financial institutions longer to figure out that a cashier's check is worthless, in comparison to a personal or corporate check). The doctor, the financier, and the furniture company representative disappear, and you are now out anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000.

This scam is being run each and every day by teams of con men from the safe and distant shores of Liberia. One glaring clue is that the e:mail correspondence will be disjointed and feel awkward to read -- spelling will be accurate, but phrasing and sentence structure will not be of the caliber you would expect from a highly-educated professional.

Variations on this scam can be very sophisticated: Some operations have "mules" on the ground here in the states, and most of the time these people will not know they are pawns in the scam. Like all confidence scams, this setup plays off of the ripe greed and/or desperation of property investors and homeowners alike who are holding houses they need to move.

I have yet to determine how widespread this scam is. More than a year ago, someone tried to pull a "local" version of this con game on me. I contacted both the local police and detectives in the area where the fake company check s written. The problem was the police could not technically do anything as a crime had yet to be committed (I didn't try to cash the check nor did I wire anyone else money), and the principals of the con were more than out of everyone's jurisdiction."-----Jim Dralle, a colleague in Chicago

(Note: they will send you an email from the fake furniture company and other emails to reinforce their con. Beware: if it sounds fishy, it probably is!)