Published Aug. 5, 2026at10:05am
After weeks of fruitlessly looking for a new place, Alvin Tran, 28, was in the middle of a Friday evening of apartment hunting when he found a rental listing on Zillow for a two-bedroom on 15th Street in Duboce Triangle. The photos of the newly renovated place looked real, the ad listed positives and negatives, and the monthly rent of $6,200 was in line with market rates.
Tran messaged the listing agent, asking whether the open house advertised for the next day was still happening. Then he went to sleep.
Early the next morning, July 25, Tran resumed his hunt. He quickly found the 15th Street apartment listed on Craigslist too, with an identical description and the same photos. “I assumed that the person just cross-posted on both platforms,” Tran said.
Craigslist has long (opens in new tab) hosted scam rental listings, but Tran, who moved to San Francisco five years ago, has had luck on the platform, using it to find two apartments. He didn’t even visit the first of those apartments before signing a lease, trusting a FaceTime tour by the listing agent.