When looking for a new place to live, Casey Guthrie headed online to craigslist.com. He found an adorable house, not far from the beach, in Milford.
"I contacted the people and they informed me they were from Nigeria and they were missionaries," Guthrie said.
Immediately wary, Guthrie sat back down at the computer at this New London house and went online again. This time he went to the Milford town website and did a property search.
"I researched the property to see who the owner was, so I could match it with emails that I was corresponding to," Guthrie said. "They matched. At that point I was feeling a little more comfortable with the situation." So Guthrie moved forward.
They emailed him a rental application. The emails contained lots of biblical quotes and stories from Africa.
When he asked about payment, they told him to wire the first month's rent and security deposit, a total of $2,000, via Western Union. That was the red flag.
"I thought it was a scam right there," Guthrie said. "Anybody owning the house would have a checking account."
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Guthrie's gut instinct was right.
The homeowner does not want to identified, but she is not in Nigeria.
She is looking for renters, but she says someone somehow manipulated her craigslist.com ad and changed the contact information to their own.
"I just find it very wrong," Guthrie said. "I mean I want people to know. It's horrible."
Guthrie says he gets several phone calls a day from the fake homeowner, asking why he had not wired the money.
The real homeowner says she has filed a report with Milford police.
She has also asked craigslist.com to remove the fraudulent advertisement and replace it with the legitimate one.
