shadesofmauve (
shadesofmauve) wrote2012-08-27 10:56 pm
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That's it, I think I have to be done with CL housing.
I'm not sure I'll keep posting my spare room on craigslist. It's always worked before -- I found three housemates that way, and they were all just great. One of them lived with me for over two years.
This year it's been nothing but a pain in the ass. I've had a few genuine bites with real people on the other end of the email that all didn't pan out for one reason or another (most of 'em were okay, if flaky) but the most common responses are scammers.
For those that aren't aware, someone responding to a craigslist add doesn't see your info until you respond back, so I usually do a bit of pre-screening and just don't answer some messages. I've also finally added an email address I don't use for anything else.
The thing that really pisses me off is that all the scammers say they're foreign, looking to move to the area. It makes me angry because I really, really don't want to deny someone who's *actually* from another country or a non-native english speaker a place to live -- travel is awesome and I have a lot more experience working around language barriers than most people I know! -- but it's gotten to the point where I see "I'm from X" and I think "You are not real."
The first one in the pattern asked really fricking weird questions and gave reference email addresses, which showed up as a scammer when googled. The most recent one I might not have caught ("I'm from Spain, living in haiti, and...") except that the next day I replied to a very simple "Hey, is it still available?" and got back an almost word-for-word identical "I'm from the UK, living in Luxembourg."
[Pointer to the person claiming to live in Luxembourg: there is no fucking way I believe you're at a major western european university and do not have phone access. Pull the other one, it's got bells on. Miss Haiti was a waaaay smarter scammer.]
Anyway.
Only having one housemate for awhile isn't dire, but it's already been 8 months, and it's a slow leak. Time to start looking for places to put up ads in town, I think.
This year it's been nothing but a pain in the ass. I've had a few genuine bites with real people on the other end of the email that all didn't pan out for one reason or another (most of 'em were okay, if flaky) but the most common responses are scammers.
For those that aren't aware, someone responding to a craigslist add doesn't see your info until you respond back, so I usually do a bit of pre-screening and just don't answer some messages. I've also finally added an email address I don't use for anything else.
The thing that really pisses me off is that all the scammers say they're foreign, looking to move to the area. It makes me angry because I really, really don't want to deny someone who's *actually* from another country or a non-native english speaker a place to live -- travel is awesome and I have a lot more experience working around language barriers than most people I know! -- but it's gotten to the point where I see "I'm from X" and I think "You are not real."
The first one in the pattern asked really fricking weird questions and gave reference email addresses, which showed up as a scammer when googled. The most recent one I might not have caught ("I'm from Spain, living in haiti, and...") except that the next day I replied to a very simple "Hey, is it still available?" and got back an almost word-for-word identical "I'm from the UK, living in Luxembourg."
[Pointer to the person claiming to live in Luxembourg: there is no fucking way I believe you're at a major western european university and do not have phone access. Pull the other one, it's got bells on. Miss Haiti was a waaaay smarter scammer.]
Anyway.
Only having one housemate for awhile isn't dire, but it's already been 8 months, and it's a slow leak. Time to start looking for places to put up ads in town, I think.