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Sublet scams increasing in Madison area
Facebook, Craigslist among venues most targeted by fraudulent apartment seekers
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The Madison area has recently become a common target for rental scams, and campus officials are warning students seeking a room or apartment sublet to be cautious.
Campus Area Housing Listing Service Coordinator Danielle Tolzmann said rental scams are as prevalent as ever, adding rental scams are most commonly seen in response to summer subleasing ads.
Scammers collect hund-reds of e-mails from people looking to sublet and respond with interest to the advertisements. The scammers present themselves as wealthy individuals and ask to be allowed to have their “financial person” send a cashier’s check, Tolzmann said.
Generally, the scammers will say they cannot issue checks for any amount less than $2,000, according to Tolzmann. The scammer then sends the leaser a cashier check and asks to have the excess amount be wired back to them.
About a week later, the person who is being scammed is informed the check was not valid and they must pay back the money.
“Students aren’t inundated with these kinds of scams constantly, so they don’t know what to look for, making them a good target,” Tolzmann said.
Tolzmann added some signs of fraud are spelling errors, poor grammar and having the e-mail sent as a BCC/Blind Copy. Also, the person generally asks questions about information clearly stated in the advertisement.
According to Tolzmann, the rental scams are predominately coming from global websites such as Craigslist and Facebook.
“A student received a fraudulent e-mail as recently as this week in response to an ad that they had posted on Craigslist.org,” Tolzmann said.
Jonathon Jarosinski, a fraud investigator with University of Wisconsin Credit Union, said in years past it was easier to notice fraudulent money.
“We’ve seen a progression in the kind of counterfeit the scammers are using,” Jarosinski said.
Jarosinski said though UPS money orders, cashier’s checks and other forms of payment with security features identifying fraud-ulence used to be common, the bank is seeing more people use checks from business accounts.
“They are real account numbers, but they are stolen from legitimate checks,” Jarosinski said.
Jarosinski said he conducts many training sessions with employees to help them recognize fraudulent checks.
Another prevention the UW Credit Union uses is distributing a handout warning of fraud whenever a member makes a large withdrawal. The handout informs members to not send large amounts of money to anyone who has sent a check.
Tolzmann said she thinks it is important for students to be aware and know what to look for in responses they receive to subletting ads. She recommended putting ads on the university-run campus area housing site as a safe alternative.
“We are more local, so we don’t have the global range that Craigslist and Facebook do. With a global audience, you not only get the good folks, but the riffraff that go along with it,” Tolzmann said.
Both Jarosinski and Tolzmann said they encourage students to get help if they receive an e-mail or check that is questionable.
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HOUSES FOR Fall 2010. All houses are on W Dayton or N Bassett. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 bedrooms. All have parking. madisoncampusrentals.com
CAH (Campus Area Housing) is a great service, run by and for students — with Danielle’s able leadership — down at Visitor & Information Programs in the Red Gym. Listers & landlords pay (low) fees to support it, and so guess what? You renters are paying for it! So use it, it works! campusareahousing.wisc.edu/
This happened just last week to my daughter, who is a student at UW-Madison! She had an ad on Craigslist in Madison to sublet her apartment for the summer and received a letter from a ‘lady in the Netherlands’ who wanted to go to school in Madison this summer. Here’s the catch: this ‘lady’ wanted to send my daughter a check for an amount $300 more than the rent and in turn wanted my daughter to send her the $300 back in a check!! These scammers are unreal!!! People………please be on the lookout for this kind of scam!! Tell your kids and friends.