Craigslist fails to flag most scam rental ads, study finds

Craigslist, the popular online listings service, has waged a long fight against scammers, but a new academic study suggests it’s been losing the battle.

The study focussed on listings for housing rentals, and found that Craigslist failed to remove a majority of those that were fraudulent.

The researchers analyzed two million ads over a five-month period in 2014 and determined that Craigslist had flagged and removed fewer than half the listings that likely weren’t genuine.

Looking for housing can be stressful, and people are vulnerable to schemes that advertise below-market pricing or ways to get ahead of the rental game.

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