Weird Craigslist scam(?)

Got a call from a neighbor of my vacant property yesterday. Guys have been entering it (it has a locked gate) and nosing around saying it's for sale. Neighbor said "no, it's not". They said it was posted on CL. She put a sign on the gate for me saying "Not for sale". I checked CL and found the ad: http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/bar/4725665422.html

The "lot" outlined in red on the satellite view is across the street from my place, claims to be 5 acres. The outlined area actually is another neighbor's house that sits on 13 acres and is NOT for sale (AFAIK) The "street view" picture IS of my place. Neighbor called the phone # in the ad and they claimed the sale was a foreclosure and some "charity" was selling it or some BS.

My question: what could possibly be the objective of this scam? Someone put some effort into creating the ad, grabbing info off of google, etc. with no way to make any money that I can figure. No one in their right mind would hand over $12,500 OR a car (as they suggest) for real estate without a title search, closing at a lawyer's office, etc. Only think I can figure is they're phishing for email addresses or phone numbers in replies.
(PS, I DID flag the ad for "fraud"). Anyone had any experience similar to this?

Yes sir, here is my thoughts 1. It was on TV Where they rent out vacant/foreclosed houses. 2. They sell property to some one cheap (no title search) quit there claim dead type of sale!!!! And yes people get scammed on this stuff and it could be a hassle for you if the "new owner moved in"!!!! 3. They sell a non exsistant property next to yours (used to be common in rural large acreage areas out in the boonies) The buyer would view your property and the 20 acres sits behind it etc.!!! Good luck

Obviously, its some sort of attempt to grab money and defraud someone, why couldn't law enforcement become aware of this and nail them ? Send in someone undercover, posing as an interested buyer, soon as the money (trade) changes hands, isn't it over ? Given the likely idiot on the other end, it would seem like easy prey, but you never know, better to err on the side of cautiousness, vs guns a ablaze. One has to have a distinct and penchant hatred of these kinds of misguided folks, that is for sure !

I'd want to figure a way to turn it around on them, without them knowing, see what happens, at some point people have to meet and money(trade)has to happen, so someone on their end has to reveal themselves, the whole thing sounds foolish, you give em a car and they give you a deed ?

(quoted from post at 10:18:10 10/26/14) Yes sir, here is my thoughts 1. It was on TV Where they rent out vacant/foreclosed houses. 2. They sell property to some one cheap (no title search) quit there claim dead type of sale!!!! And yes people get scammed on this stuff and[b:d8d8cff682] it could be a hassle for you if the "new owner moved in"!!!![/b:d8d8cff682] 3. They sell a non exsistant property next to yours (used to be common in rural large acreage areas out in the boonies) The buyer would view your property and the 20 acres sits behind it etc.!!! Good luck

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Yeah, I've heard of the renting out vacant house scams. But my property is VACANT LAND. I'd like to see someone show up and try to claim it with a phony deed in hand. If that works, I'm going to type up a deed for the biggest mansion in the state and move in. :lol: Now the neighbor whose house sits on the area outlined in ad DOES have a house on it, but I don't think it's vacant. Maybe that's the target.

Billy,
Yeah, it'd be nice to scam the scammers. It's just not worth my time and effort, though. I figure I'm pretty well protected as my deed is registered for the last 10 years and all the neighbors know me.

That's the thing, you have legitimate paperwork, its hard to believe someone would attempt this, they prey on people, just opportunists trying to take advantage, something an honest person just has to hate, oftentimes these things go awry and they get caught in their own web, just nice to help that along whenever possible LOL !

Billy, they don't have enough cops to have them sitting around checking out every ad on CL to see if it's legit or not or selling a stolen item. They only way they can detect fraud or theft is if someone calls them. That is what you should have done IMO instead of notifying CL. Then the cops could have contacted the seller and maybe busted them.

Some people are always trying to find a deal. So much so that they set themselves up to be scammed and ripped off. They see something as such a great deal and they are so greedy for that item that they jump because the seller says something along the line of "here is a bill of sale, all you have to do is go to the county court house and they will swap the deed for you". And they jump. Then find out they have been scammed at a much later date. By the time they call the cops the scammer is long gone. It really is a buyer beware deal on CL.

Rick

The people that are doing this are scum and that is not arguable. The trouble is the buyers are not much better either. They are letting greed/envy/laziness guide them into something they should know is a scam.

It would be like one of us old tractor guys going top buy a rare tractor for say $500. We all know that would not be the correct price and something was off.

I know of a local property that is owned by a fellow down in St. Louis. It is vacant land. About 4-5 years ago there was a construction crew that started leveling off a spot for a building on the ground. We all thought that the owner was building something. He has talked about a retirement home here. It turned out that someone had "sold" the ground to a couple from the Quad Cities with a quick claim deed. The fake seller had spun a story about how the "new" owners could have possession of the property now with half down. Then he would have a the "full closing in 90 days as he wanted to do a property roll over.

It was all fake. The new buyers where out their money and it took a few months to straighten out the mess. The fake seller was never found.

The local law found out this type of scam is not that uncommon. The thieves look for properties that have no mortgages on them. They can make fake documents easier on those type of properties. It seems to be much easier in states that use deeds only. The fake seller actually forge documents that sometimes are real enough to get filed. In states with deeds and title abstracts it is a little harder but can still be done.

I found the address for my house as listed for sale on a realtors site
one time. Funny part was the picture of the house was a neighbors
house about a half mile away. Neither houses is for sale. Go figure.

I will add a little more, Usually you never meet the seller its all handled through the mail or by "an agent" etc. If you question them or want documents the add goes down or they disreguard you

What you mean that Junk Deere GPP potato tractor for $500 is a scam!!!!

They might not hand of $12,500 the usual approach is they ask of $ 1250.00 either wired or cash for earnest money so they can get you the papers (deed) of course you will never hear from them again. That is the way that scam works in these parts.

Makes me glad that I don't read the ads on CL.

We have ten acres just east of Lubbock, Texas. Been here for nearly 40 years. When we bought it, it had been about a section of farmland that was divided into five and ten acres parcels. The paperwork has easements on two sides for future roads, etc. So, on the back side we moved our fence line off the property line 20 feet, in anticipation of a road or a turnrow at some time. After about 20 years it was apparent that there would never be a road back there so I moved the fence to the original property line. Well, you can guess what happened. My "good" neighbor accused me of stealing a 20 foot wide piece of land right in front of his eyes. I produced the original paperwork and asked him to do the same, as survey stakes were still buried at the corners. Ended up having the place surveyed again, with the party who was wrong paying for it. He still doesn't speak to me and I suppose that's OK. In parts of Texas one has to be careful about "abandoned" property though. It's tricky, but you can lose land if you aren't on top of things.

As far as someone selling property that isn't theirs, it's a pretty common thing. Just isn't enough law enforcement to pay that much attention to it.

I wouldn't think this is that uncommon. About 30 years ago I was
taking the property assessment & valuation class at Lansing
Community College and they pointed out there are entire sections
missing on the Michigan grid up north. Many of those missing
sections get sold as hunting land regularly, especially in bars in
the Detroit area around hunting season. Irregularities in the
Michigan base line caused the errors and it is the practice to
push the errors all in one direction. Well the errors are big
enough that there are some townships that have missing sections.
You can write a quick claim deed on these sections, you have a
"good" legal description and it will be unencumbered, only problem
is it doesn't exist.

I added to the notice on my gate that the CL ad is a scam. I also talked to the neighbor lady whose house is on the lot outlined in red in the ad to warn her.

Have you asked the seller to provide you with the Sidwell number of the property they claim to own? It's quite possible they bought SOMETHING at the tax auction, but are mistaken as to the location of their property. If they won't cough up the Sidwell number, you can be certain it's a scam. If they know the parcel number it could still be a scam, but you can at least confirm with your county clerk that what they claim to be selling is what they claim to own.

(quoted from post at 05:19:52 10/27/14) Have you asked the seller to provide you with the Sidwell number of the property they claim to own? It's quite possible they bought SOMETHING at the tax auction, but are mistaken as to the location of their property. If they won't cough up the Sidwell number, you can be certain it's a scam. If they know the parcel number it could still be a scam, but you can at least confirm with your county clerk that what they claim to be selling is what they claim to own.

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No, not yet. I've flagged the ads. They also got a pic of the back of my property from the expressway that it borders. It gets weirder. Buddy called the phone #, posing as someone with a classic car to trade. The person on the other end was sincere, said they worked for a charity and when my buddy asked to meet up at the property, the guy said he'd text him the number of the guy who could show the property. The charity he gave sounds legit, at least it shows up on the net. I suspect that the charity and the guy who posted the ad is also getting scammed. We'll see how this plays out. I don't want to waste too much of my time but I'm going to ask some serious questions of the poster, such as the property tax id, why the dimensions in the ad don't seem to match the outlined area on the satellite map, why the property description doesn't mention a house yet there's one on the described property, why the pictures are of property other than that outlined, etc.

What they are looking for, is someone who will hand over a bunch of money without thinking.

I would print a copy of the ad and show it to the local Sheriff to see if they would investigate. Give them as much info as possible.

Myron

(quoted from post at 15:34:15 11/02/14) I would print a copy of the ad and show it to the local Sheriff to see if they would investigate. Give them as much info as possible.

Myron

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I've notified the County Sheriff Internet unit. Haven't heard back anything yet.