LYNN, Mass. — A Lynn man is telling renters and landlords to watch out after his ad on craigslist was stolen and potential tenants were nearly duped.
Someone copied Frank Perez’s ad and tried trick potential tenants into giving up personal info and even sending cash to get a key for the house.
"Not only was it twice but the other was posted with half of the price,” Perez said.
Perez told FOX25 about the ad he posted on Trulia, and with that posting he had the option to share it on Craigslist as well.
"I get an average of five to six calls a day,” he said.
The fake posting gave an email address, and after conversing online one interested tenant was given a phone number to call and asked to provide her social security number of the phone.
"I said well we would never ask for SS on the phone,” Perez said.
A second person told Perez a man pretending to be him asked her to send cash in order to get the key.
"She needed to send him a $900.00 deposit,” he said. "That's when I started realizing this was a scam."
Now Perez wants other landlords and potential renters to watch out.
"This is like a buyer's beware type of thing,” he said.
Perez told FOX25 he reached out to Craigslist and while the never responded, both his ad and the fake ad were removed.