The Craigslist identity thieves at work in Del.
By Rhonda B. Graham
The News Journal
September 3, 2009

She probably won't admit it, but real estate agent Tatyana Boyce is a Craigslist identity theft artist's worst nightmare.
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Her saga began after placing an ad on Craigslist on Aug. 13 for the sale of waterfront property at Augustine Beach.

Her clients had vacated the house, renting a neighboring house. When a nice family with kids showed up, peering in the windows, the owners went over to offer help. They learned the family was more attracted by the $800 rent, with only a $500 deposit, than the rather well-kept waterfront home that easily would have rented for at least $1,200 a month.

The owner called Boyce to find out what went wrong. He helped her navigate the astronomically popular social media Web site to reread her listing. "It was exactly my ad, only in section 'for rent,' and with a different e-mail address," says Boyce.

She inquired about the property and the response was typical of the Internet phishing scams that mostly come out of Africa and Canada.

It had a normal middle-class narrative that was brilliant as fiction. As newlyweds the couple brought the property, but then he won a bid on a West African piece of petroleum land. But he is required to rebid on the land in 10 years, so has to move there to set up his company to secure his claim. The wife doesn't want to go, but both are concerned about their U.S. property being properly maintained.

And of course, Boyce sounded like that person. With so much in flux, they would have to mail her the keys.

Oh, and she only has to fill out a typical application, appropriately titled "Please Tell Us About Yourself" form -- a virtual template for destroying your legal life as you know it.

Home phone, date of birth, other phone, current address, reason for leaving your current residence, marital status, number of people living the house, occupation and move-in date. He even wanted to know if you own a pet.

How cruelly alluring. And yet so typical, says Ian McConnel, director of the state's Consumer Protection Unit.

Fortunately, the Keller Williams Realty agent kept her wits, although it took Craigslist several days to remove the phony ad after her initial request. And then she sent a report to the Attorney General's Office, which had not fielded a complaint of this kind against Craigslist. But it wants to hear more.

"Somebody can take that ID and produce and perpetuate some sort of crime that could mar your record and you are held responsible," McConnel said. "If you posted an ad like this you need to be monitoring it daily."

If you happen not to have been as quick on your feet as Boyce about the security of personal information, McConnel offers this advice. Make a report to credit agencies, thereby freezing your credit information from being accessed. Then make a police report and take that document to the Attorney General's Office, so you can get Delaware's new ID theft passport (pictured above).

We are one of nine states that issue these cards so victims can show proof to police that they are not, say, the robber whose getaway car has a registration in your name in the glove box.

Suspicious that you've been duped like this? McConnel's office would like to hear from you too. Call (800) 220-5424.