Why is a Nigerian trying to rent my house out for me?

When your house is on the market, it's not unusual to have random looky-loos drive by to check out your house.  But when your house has SOLD, the random looky-loos start getting suspicious.  Then when one stops and starts asking about the craigslist ad to rent your house for less than half of what it should rent for - not that is was EVER for rent, mind you - questions start popping into your head.

Apparently, a ring of Nigerian online scamming masterminds have targeted MY house in little ol' Richmond, Virginia.  We checked craigslist and lo and behold, interior and exterior photos of my house...for rent!  At TJ Maxx prices.  Interestingly, these dudes crafted an email with my name included in it to reply to on craigslist.

When you send them an email expressing interest, this is the reply:

Hello,
Thanks for your interest and inquiries about my house.Yes the house is still available for rent and we are looking for a responsible person/family to occupy and maintain the house now that we are not around.

Myself and wife just traveled to UK for a program called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Europe which are UK , Spain and Italy. We will be away for 4 to 5 years or more that is why I have made up my mind to put up my house for rent to 5whom ever that will take good care of it.Also how long do you intend to stay? How soon do you intend to move in?


I did a little homework online and discovered the rampant scamming that is taking place on craigslist.  These asswipes find homes listed on MLS, post them as rentals, ask the gullible to drive by and assess the exterior of the house, then WIRE TO A FOREIGN ACCOUNT a deposit and first/last month's rent.  Really?


So what did I do? Reported them to an online internet scam database, reported them to craigslist, had the ad removed and wrote these guys a threatening email:  


You have been reported to the Internet Crime and Complaint Center. You are also being reported to the FTC, as well as local Richmond authorities. This is MY house you are trying to rent as a scam.  Cease posting fraudulent ads to rent property that is NOT YOURS TO RENT.  You will be pursued, apprehended and punished accordingly for these crimes.  


And the response?  


Thanks for your interest and inquiries about my house.Yes the house is still available for rent and we are looking for a responsible person/family to occupy and maintain the house now that we are not around.

Myself and wife just traveled to Nigeria for a program called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Europe and Africa which are Spain,Greece and Nigeria.

We will be away for 2 to 3 years or more that is why I have made up my mind to put up my house for rent to whom ever that will take good care of it.Also how long do you intend to stay? How soon do you intend to move in?


Sigh.


After all the mental and emotional working-up I went through to draft that email, all I get is a generic auto-reply.  Great.  Fortunately, for those of us who get really angry and wish to exact revenge on these criminals, there apparently are support groups online.  A group of unpaid volunteers, loosely bound together by a hatred for craigslist scammers, have united to send mock replies to the scammers.  Obviously, as made apparent by the auto-reply I got, this reverse-harassment really doesn't help catch any net-criminals.  But what it could do, is waste their time - and maybe get you a chuckle out of it.  According to the "support group" or band of renegade internet vigilantes, getting a death threat is the ultimate reward - as it tells you that you've annoyed the shit out of some internet scammer.  People on this crusade even go so far as to set up faux email accounts so they themselves are untraceable by the scammers.  I guess if you can't catch 'em, then just bug the living daylights out of them.  


Sign me up.