Surrey woman loses $9,000 in Olympic rental scam

By Tom  Zytaruk, Surrey Now (Canada),  Oct. 6, 2009

VANCOUVER — A Surrey woman was scammed out of almost $9,000 after trying to rent her home out during the 2010 Olympics by placing an online ad on Craig’s List.

Surrey RCMP Sgt. Roger Morrow said the victim has asked police not to make her name public. He said she was contacted by someone claiming to be a doctor from England, who raised the ante by saying he and his family would like to rent her place for a year for $30,000.

She bit. The “doctor” then sent her a cheque for $39,000, and then contacted her to say he’d sent too much and needed $8,900 back to cover his moving costs.

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UPDATE 23/11/09: scammer caught, read the story here.

Slick Web scammer leaves Bend man out $3,600

By Zack Hall / The Bulletin (Bend, OR), January 08, 2009 

Ed Harman is a trusting person by nature.

So when a person claiming through e-mail to be a doctor in England said he was moving to the United States and wanted to rent Harman’s southeast Bend townhome that Harman had placed on Craigslist, the 65-year-old longtime Bend resident believed him.

It was a mistake that cost Harman nearly $4,000.

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