Crime & Safety
Vacation Rental Scam Costs Darien Resident $1,725
Copying a real advertisement for a vacation house on Craig's List and then posing as the landlord, a fraudster received $1,725 from a Darien resident.
The vacation home in Jackson, WY is real. So was the Craig's List notice for it on the Internet. So was the $1,725 a Darien resident wired as a deposit on it.
The only problem was that the person advertising the place on the Internet was not the one who owned the property, according to Darien police.
Police said the advertisement on the Internet that the victim saw online had been copied from the real advertisement elsewhere -- with the exception of the contact information and the account the money was supposed to be wired to. That belonged to the criminal.
After speaking to the person that the victim was led to believe was the owner, the victim agreed to wire the money to a bank in Fresno, CA.
A relative of the victim found the same house advertised elsewhere on the Internet by the real owner, police were told.
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