How To Scam A “Craigslist” Scammer

“So I was hunting for a rental house for the valentines day weekend and wasn’t finding much, so I popped into the local Craigslist page and found a place at a decent but very believable price. No contact info or website, so I emailed through the Craigslist relay, everything sounds legit up until he asks me to pay using Zelle or bank transfer.”

“Immediately knew it was a scam but I played along acting confused because I’d never used Zelle, he sends me the zelle info to send the payment.

At this point I reverse image search the cabin and find the actual property owner info and call them. He confirmed that he has had this scam happen before and angry people show up expecting a rental that is already legitimately reserved and demanding a refund. I give him the links and info to the fake Craigslist posting so he can report it.”

“So now I have confirmed that this is 100% a scam so I decide to have a go at this guy and see how far I can get. After a few more confused sounding email regarding how to get the money to him over zelle I send him the request but instead of paying him I sent it as a request for payment.”

“I send a few more messages saying it is not going through and then I get a notification saying a payment has been received. Sure enough he approved my payment request and sent me the money he was trying to get me to send him.

So I had over $400 siting in my zelle acount from a guy in Nigeria who was trying to scam me out of my romantic weekend.”

Oregonlost