Vacation rental scams through Craigslist continue in South Lake Tahoe

Unknowingly, visitors to South Lake Tahoe are renting legitimate vacation homes through illegitimate parties, leaving them without money or a place to stay when they arrive.

South Tahoe Now has been warning people for years about renting both short-term and long-term homes through Craigslist, the online classified ad forum.

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department is warning potential vacation home renters that scams continue on Craigslist.

A typical scenario begins with a criminal posting information about a real vacation home, complete with photos and information they've taken off a real website with valid listings. They post this information on Craiglist in cities across the state, and sometimes country, and wait for people to look at a great price and contact them to book what they think is a great vacation in South Lake Tahoe (though this scam is not just occurring in SLT and other vacation destinations have this same situation).

A very low price compared to what is seen elsewhere is always a good alert that something might not be right.

After contact they send the soon to be victim a contract that looks very legitimate. The contract is completed and return via email, then the criminal will ask for money to be wired into their bank account, through Western Union and sometimes by personal check.

These funds go into a bank account that will soon be closed, once the money from their scam is completed.

Once the victim comes to South Lake Tahoe to stay in the great home they think they've rented they learn that the address given is fake, its a home that is already occupied or nobody is there to great them as arranged, and never will be.

SLTPD said there is a new trend on this scam, and its by paying for the vacation rental with gift cards. The renter then provides those numbers to the scammer.

In research this past July, I recognized a fake vacation rental listing on Craigslist and made contact with the person on the ad to try and get information that could be used against them.

Here is the email I received from them on July 24, 2017. It came from the email address teamjoerealtors002@gmail.com:

Attached, you will find the booking terms and agreement form. You are required to fill in the necessary paperwork and email us the signed contract. Here is the bank account info where you can send in your deposit. The total deposit to secure your dates will be $1,600 for the rental fee and the refundable security fee. make it same day delivery, whatever charges that it incurs while transferring will be given back to you along with the security fee on your departure

Bank Name: Bank Of America
Account Name: Candice Archambault
Account Number: 457037039435
Routing Number: 122101706

Please kindly get back to me immediately with the payment information given to you while deposit is transferred to our bank account so i can prepare your receipt asap, please remember to print and come along with the payment receipt that i will attach and forward to you after confirmation of deposit.

Once the deposit is confirm , You'll receive your Receipt immediately to confirm your reservation for your chosen date

Thanks for your reservation with us.

Kind regards, Joe.

All of the information gathered was forwarded to Maureen Stuhlman, of the City's short-term vacation rental enforcement team.

These fake listings appear on Craigslist daily so another job of homeowners and management companies is to search for their homes erroneously listed. Craigslist legal teams will remove the listing but it could easily pop up again.

In an effort to avoid being scammed while renting a vacation home, SLTPD suggests the following:

Use a Credit Card: Never use bank wires, certified checks, western union, or any other service where the money is gone forever immediately after you send it. The credit card company has already performed basic background checks on the company charging your card.

Obtain full contact info and verify: Obtain full contact information for the person you are dealing with (name / address / phone number / email / etc) and verify that information (by using Google search, etc). Any real business should be easy to verify, as they will have a full web site, be in the yellow pages, be easy to contact, etc. However, if dealing with a person, ask for references, especially full work contact info, and verify that contact info. If the home is in the city limits, also verify the vacation home on the City of South Lake Tahoe's list of licensed homes. The homeowner's business license and information one can verify is listed here.

Your phone calls are answered: If they always have to call you back (when you call, you always have to leave a message to call you back), then avoid. When they call, ask for a phone number where you can immediately call them back. If they don't pick up the phone, watch out. Be aware that many scammers use message services (no one answers; you always need to leave a message). Also, Google any phone numbers. You should find your contact person associated with that number. If not, that may indicate the phone number is brand new.

If you are a victim of a vacation rental scam, contact the South Lake Tahoe Police Department at (530) 542-6100. They can take a report, but since the scam occurred elsewhere (the point where money was exchanged) they can take a report and try and assist.

The El Dorado County District Attorney's Office investigators also work on these cases. Since it is usually too late to find the crook by the time a person realizes they've been scammed they have also tried to educate the public before that scam occurs. Attached to this story is a video by the DA's office that was filmed in South Lake Tahoe in 2016.