Protected by Paranoia

Last Friday I inquired about an apartment on craigslist that had a valid description, photos, and the price looked legitimate.  The place is essentially right across the street from some friends of mine, so I’ve seen the outside of the place many times.  In the initial e-mail I asked some specific questions regarding heating, a/c, and security.

On Saturday I got a response from a management company representative that verified the details in the initial listing and failed to answer any of my questions.  It did however mention contacting to setup a time to view the apartment and a link to a site to get a free credit report that is required to sign the lease.  At first the link looks like it could be legit, but clicking on it results in the browser bouncing through about 5 sites until landing on experians freecreditreport.com. This was enough to scare me, so I opted to bail on the place.

Later that evening my friend mentioned that it had been flagged for removal unsurprisingly.  After googling the contact and the management company I stumbled across this:

http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/apa/1518501681.html

Look at the very bottom, and if you care to dig around to investigate the attack feel free to click the link.  Its pretty elaborate for an attack and all the listing information appears legit.  The main body of the email is identical to what I received.

Great apartment or not, paranoia prevails.