“When something seems too good to be true, well…it’s gotta be, right?”

“Dear PoPville,

Thought I’d flag a suspicious Craiglist apartment listing. Another example of a listing being too good to be true, I suspect. The price and lack of pictures made me suspicious–other multi-bedroom units in the building go for well over $2800. The initial email claiming to have sent multiple messages through Craiglist’s email relay seemed fishy. The follow-up emails raised my hackles–erratic use of punctuation (though these days…), strange diction, a promise to run a background check before even applying, etc. Maybe I’m too suspicious–the embedded links and email address all checked out; they didn’t appear to redirect to a suspicious website. But I flagged the post for Craigslist and thought it’d be valuable to warn the PoPville community, nonetheless. When something seems too good to be true, well…it’s gotta be, right?

Looks like Craigslist took it down.”

Ed. Note: A good reminder to be alert and never send deposits, first month’s rent etc. without seeing the unit in person first. My wife has a colleague who recently moved to D.C. from out of town and when they went to move in to their apartment they were told, “what are you talking about, this unit is not vacant.”