Scams Steals Homeowner's Identity and Management Firm's Listing

For Morgan Wigle, Summit Property Management, December has been anything but a holiday.

            Summit Property has a home on the east bench near HP for rent. It's a modest home of 2,632 square feet on Dalspring Avenue.

            When Wigle started getting calls about the property, he was glad to see it had been noticed quickly, without any additional advertising. The size of the home was of some concern, but Wigle said it was priced right.

            "I'd received eight or nine calls on the property," Wigle says. "But, I got concerned when several of them mentioned they'd emailed the homeowner."

            A bogus craigslist post was generating the calls Wigle was receiving, but he was about to find there was more to this story.

            "It was true, Mike Mercy was the owner, but Mike had not talked with any of the people who were calling," Wigle says.

            Summit Property manages more than 120 properties in the Treasure Valley, mostly single-family dwellings. It's full service - screening tenants, collecting rents, scheduling maintenance and reporting to the owners.

            "Our business requires great trust with the homeowner," he says. "This ad has blown some of that trust."

            Writing to the email address, Wigle began an online dialogue, writing to the email address listed on craigslist.

            craigslist provides local classifieds and forums for jobs, housing rent or sale, personals, and such, but cautions upfront that those responding to the listings should not submit to credit checks or background checks for housing until you have met the interviewer or landlord in person.

            Wigle says during his three-day email exchange he asked on numerous occasions to meet with the fake "Mike" to go through the home, where the security deposit should be sent, contractual obligations and securing the home for rent.

            The respondent wrote on day three: "All we ask for is making sure you fill the rental application form properly so that we can approve you as our tenant, we will also advise you secure our home by paying for a refundable security deposit so that we can take our house off market and let other renters not to contact us anymore for the same house you are about renting."

            Wigle says he traced the IPO address (a number specifically issued to a computer) to Sunnyridge, Calif., but all the emails stated they had moved to Ohio. Upon contacting law enforcement and the Attorney General's office in California, he was told this scam was too small to work on, and to call the FBI.

            Wigle has filed a complaint with Idaho's Attorney General, but remains fearful someone has been taken in this scam.

            Robb Hicken, chief storyteller with the BBB, says this is a complex scam.

            "We've seen the misdirect ads on craigslist before, but we rarely see this complicated a scam," he says.

            BBB warns individuals to check out the legitimacy of any purchase, job or housing arrangement before making a purchase.