Local Couple Tracks Craigslist Vacation Rental Scams

GAITHERSBURG, Md. (WUSA) -- Three weeks ago Carol and Jerry Jongerius received a strange phone call from a man demanding a receipt for their rental property in North Carolina.

"We had no idea what he was talking about because we had never rented our property to him," said Jerry.

But the man on the other end of the line directed them to a Craigslist posting and sure enough, there was their vacation rental house in North Carolina and a description that was verbatim to their website. However, the couple did not know the person who had listed the property.

"We advertise primarily on the internet which is why this scam works," he explained. "Someone took our photos and our text of our properties that was already online and put it out there on another website but with their contact information."

Since then, Jongerius has worked tirelessly collecting the names and contact information for other victims like him, tracking down the culprit who posted his property and making endless police reports with different authorities.

"It's beyond frustrating that everyone is pointing fingers," said Jerry regarding the various law enforcement groups. "They say that its not our jurisdiction even the FBI is saying if it goes overseas its not our jurisdiction. So who's crime is it?"

So Jongerius has compiled his own crime report, documenting every point of contact he's made regarding the property listings. In the midst of his work, he received an email from a woman who almost fell prey to the very same Craigslist poster.

Three hundred miles away in Raleigh, NC, Jessica Santel describes how she knew it was a scam. She had been looking to rent a vacation home along with a group of friends for a holiday week. Her research online led her to the Jongerius rental website, Idyll Rentals.

"There was one house stood out to me," she said. "This is an amazing home. It's an absolutely gorgeous home."

Two weeks later, she came across a deal she couldn't refuse on Craigslist.

"It was an 8 bedroom 7 bath home and he was saying 'Hey, it's only going to be $4500 for the week,'" she said. "And you think to yourself, well who wouldn't want that?"

So she jumped on the offer. But when the man emailed her pictures of the place she saw "red flags." After searching online, she found the Idyll Rentals website and contacted the Jongerius family.

"It's unreal that this guy is going around basically posing as an owner of all of these beautiful vacation homes," she said. "He's preying on these people when all they want to do is celebrate with their family and friends."

Jongerius says that same person has preyed on a countless number of individuals. So Jongerius has contacted Craigslist through their alert scam tip line as well as through individual e-mails.

"A lot of the rental sites who had similar fraudulent postings have been very cooperative," he said. "But Craigslist has not been cooperative at all. As of today there are still listings up there that are fraudulent."

9NEWS NOW reached out to several company reps for Craigslist and received no response. As for the criminal cases, some local investigators are finally tapping into Jongerius claims. But until they make an arrest, he said he'll keep on it.

"You just don't understand what's the motivation of these people," he said. "We tracked one of the individuals into Wisconsin and we think we've tracked another individual into Nigeria but we need law enforcement to track that down for sure."

After weeks of intensive research into the subject, Jongerius has several tips for people to avoid scams. First, he said if the person posting will only accept a certified check or a bank wire, that's a red flag. Another potential sign of fraud lies in the wording of the contract.

"If it contains no information about who the business is, the business name, address, phone number... if all that's missing that's another red flag." he said, adding that most often, a scammer will use a messaging service and not a real phone line.

"You call the phone numbers it will either accept a fax or a message," he said. "In other words, if you call the fraudster you'll never get a person. That's a red flag."

Lastly, he said using credit cards for purchases is very wise. Often, those companies have a dispute resolution process for fraud.