Craigslist Becomes a Scammy Nightmare for NJ Flood Residents in Need

There are billions of dollars of money being flooded into New Jersey right with all of the insurance companies and FEMA making the rounds. Throw in auto insurances and every other way to make money with construction, contracting and scamming, you are sure to make a killing, be killed or play by the rules.

Right now there is basically NO WHERE to find a place to live or rent 30-40 miles from the shore. Throw in pet ownership and you are really screwed.

You can contact your local realtor, which we already have several looking for us, but they are all flooded with work and once a place gets open, there are a line of 100 people waiting to grab it.

The solution for many, Craigslist! At least so they think.

Everyone is telling each other to check out Craigslist for the latest listings, as realtors won’t have access as they are private listings.

Doing so will set you up with a ton of listings, one of which I featured below that would have been perfect for us…

So I decided to give the number a call. I was expecting to hear that the house was already taken, but was instead pushed through a sales path which lead to the person on the other line trying to sell me to pay $89+ to pay for their “exclusive” lists of houses and homes which realtors don’t have access to.

I told them I wasn’t interested and might call back later. They left their name and number and also said to check out locatorsonline.com. (Disclaimer: I have not used them, so they could be legit… but this looks like everyone else taking advantage of craigslists and those who are really in need.)

After checking out their less than stellar looking web site and looking up reviews online about them and how they don’t have happy customers and aren’t issuing refunds, it shows they are just another Craigslist company taking advantage of desperate people in desperate times.

As mentioned, there is a massive flood of money coming into NJ with the relief efforts right now and millions of people are going to scam and try to take advantage of it.

Just wait until the contractors get here and take on hundreds of jobs, accept up front payments then find they have no time to work with all of their clients.

It’s not only on craigslist. As you walk around the streets of damaged homes and area, you can see piles of trash and decent quality stuff outside. People are simply loading up their trucks with metal and electronics and selling them on their own and turning them into scrap metal junkyards. While at the same time some insurance agents will still need to see the flood damaged items in front of the home.

I’m sure this is just a small faction of the misleading and fraudulent activities going on right now… and it’s only just begun!