CRAIGSLIST: Beware of Paris & London apartment rental scams (x-post)
 

I've been searching for a Paris vacation rental and had been communicating with the person in several of these ads and they all turn out to be scams to try to get you to wire them money. Please be very careful when using Craigslist.

Here are some examples, both of these have been proven to be scams.

http://paris.en.craigslist.org/vac/2160055092.html

http://paris.en.craigslist.org/vac/2166085188.html

I was savvy enough not to fall for this because with just a little research I found out it was a fraud. I've reported this person to Craigslist, hopefully no one has fallen for it.

Here's an article written about this kind of scam by the Frugal Traveler from the New York Times:

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes....n-rental-scam/

Always best to go through reputable agencies never CraigsList

And always pay with CC/Paypal many scammers tax cheats

on CraigsList...

www.betterbidding.com search LON or PAR

for best deals on hotels bidding Priceline for me

better cheaper than apartment rental almost always for me

up to 70% off... recently picked up a Thames view room

at the Tower hotel $80/nt awesome deal Meridien Etoile

Paris $80/nt.

Thanks for the caveat and the heads up...

www.insuremytrip.com always cheap wise to cover problems

I agree. We've rented dozens of apartments across Europe and we've never wired money, ALWAYS paid with credit card so we had recourse if things went awry. I feel comfortable with Craigslist posts that direct you to a real website, I feel confident sorting those out. However a straight post like this is bad news. I was fortunate to be able to find the real owner of that Ile St Louis flat to alert him that his pics were being used in a scam, he can then deal with Craigslist. I'd hate for someone to see his real ad and associate the two. So sad because there are people who will fall for this. I know many don't agree, but I think its valuable to post this here, there are many newbies and lurkers who are not super elite travelers and wouldn't necessarily know better.