In real estate like many other businesses, thieves are busy preparing ways to steal your money. There are so many scams and hoaxes out there in the internet world. Internet emails, websites and many other advertisements provide opportunities for honest people to be scammed. Some of these sites offer to provide solutions for your real estate problems for an upfront fee. Others advertise properties for rent or lease that are not owned by the hoax artists.

Craigslist recently had two examples.

One example was found on Craigslist where advertisements are run for homes to lease or purchase. The home may be for sale by a real estate agent. However, the address and number to arrange for leasing is different. This is one scam for a thief to take your money and run.

Another craigslist scam was for deposit money. Although the listed home was for rent, the number and address to send the deposit check was different than the actual MLS listing. The scam artist was ready to gather the deposit money.

These Craigslist scammers copied legitimate properties from multiple listing services and added their own information to the new advertisement for fraud.

Mortgage reconstruction and foreclosure scams are at an all time high. These advertisements hide behind the Making Home Affordable program, a program whose goals are to reduce mortgage payments for homeowners. These scam artists usually ask for an upfront fee and do nothing.

These scammers charge between $1000 to $3000 to help homeowners refinance their homes. There is no fee for the Making Homes Affordable program.

Scam artists make bogus claims of credibility about high success rates and testimonials. They also can use abbreviated terms to mimic government programs such as federal or use government words and abbreviations in their marketing ploys.

Beware of real estate hoaxes and scams by checking out real sources of information. You will be glad you did.