Five Money Scams to Watch out for on Craigslist Hoboken

Craigslist is an excellent resource for finding a variety of different items at reasonable prices. This includes rentals, homes for sale or lease and other services. The difficulty with trusting the posters who list on this site is that there are so many savvy scammers that take advantage of the site that it can be hard to tell the honest sellers or renters from those who are copying their ads to con you out of your money. Here are five money scams to watch out for on Craigslist Hoboken.

1. Housing Scam in Central New Jersey

A man and woman were arrested for a Craigslist housing scam that involve a series of scams. It took investigators five months to track them down and get the goods on them, but Allan Betancourt and Myra Sullivan, both living in Union developed the phony aliases Marcos Cardenas and Mirna Grant to bilk prospective renters out of their money. the charges made against them include false listing of rental apartments on Craigslist and stealing over $9,000 from several victims. These scams are becoming more prevalent on the popular site and it’s important for anyone using these services to be careful and make certain that the people they’re dealing with are legitimate, and under no circumstances should you wire money or give cash without confirming that everything is open and above board.

2. Hoboken rental scams

Scammers listed a 2 bedroom apartment for rent in Hoboken for $700 a month. this was less than half of the going rate for comparable properties. There were realistic photographs of the interior included in the ad and it was obviously a very nice apartment worth far more than the asking price. A reporter emailed the poster and inquired further. A return message gave instructions to complete a rental application that included sensitive information about the reporter and his spouse along with photographs. There was also a request for a Western Union and Paypal account. This is one of many housing scams being run from Craigslist Hoboken.

3. Scam victims robbed at gunpoint from crooks posting phony Craigslist ads

This scam took place in Ocean City, NJ. Shawn Christopher McShane placed an ad for a used car to lure victims in so he could rob them at gunpoint when they arrived to look at the car. He stole $4,200 from one and $4,600 from another as they brought the cash along to negotiate a deal on the vehicle. There never was a car and McShane thought he had gotten away with the crimes until police caught up with him at a local bar and arrested him.

4. Money order refund scam in Hoboken

Scammers have a money order scam listed on Craigslist. A 43 year old woman almost fell for it. She listed a variety of items for sale on the site. A buyer sent her an email and offered to purchase an item. Instead, she was sent two money orders that combined were value at $1,976, but the item sold was only $75. She took the money orders to her bank and deposited them in her account. The buyer kept calling and requested that she send a refund for the overpayment through Western Union. The wire was to go to 2 different people in West Africa. She reported the situation to the police and learned that there are several scams of this nature taking place on Craigslist. Hoboken police are investigating the situation.

5. New Jersey Credit Card Fraud

In a large scale credit card fraud scam, con artists advertised on Craigslist to find people who were willing to add people onto their credit cards. They also solicited help from people willing to help them set up a series of trade lines, or fraudulent businesses to bilk credit card companies with fictitious names and businesses. The group of conspirators were brought up on federal charges of conspiracy to fabricate over 7,000 false identities. They ran up over $2 million in bad debt and attempted to scam others into helping them commit these severe crimes. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would add a stranger to their credit cards, but it does happen.