Wise Startup Blog

We’re looking for new apartments and have stumbled across a couple of really great deals on Craigslist, deals so great we knew there had to be a catch.

Credit Card Phishing Scam

The scam works like this, there is a person listing an apartment/condo that has everything you’re looking for, and for a rate that’s well below market value. For this particular listing, the unit is actually in a 7 story building (we don’t have any buildings that tall in Gainesville), and the rent is only $735/month.

The scam works like this: I send an email to the person with the apartment for rent, they send me a reply email asking me to fill out a credit verification form to validate my inquiry.

The seller has received a lot of responses on their units in the past and wants to weed out unscrupulus buyers and they point you to this link:

http://zapsa.com/news/offers/gotoreport/

The link, when you click on it redirects to:

https://www.freecreditreports360.com/ppc/creditreport/index-AFF00043.ashx

That link looks like a real credit reporting site, but I suspect is just a phishing site (read: steal your credit card). This was a really well constructed scam, and I suspect a lot of people have been victimized, so let this post stand as a warning to people don’t fill out the credit check and pass this on.