Low concern
No scam indicators were found.
Chart a safer course
to your new home.
Craig is a Chrome extension that checks Craigslist real estate listings for common scam indicators. It scores each one against 16 flags that you can control, and then shows what each one matched within the listing.
How Craig works
CRAIG
Scam likely
Hard signal found.
14 of 16 checks ran
High risk (3)
Listing photo also appears on a real-estate siteFlagged
Reverse-image evidence
Detected at
zillow.com/daly-city-ca/rent-houses-4-bedroomsReverse-image evidence
Detected at
zillow.com/homedetails/165-Colon-Ave-San-Francisco-CA-94112Payment requested by a method with no recourseFlagged
Matched listing text
…send the deposit by western union to hold the unit…
Owner claims to be unreachable in personFlagged
Matched listing text
…I am out of the country until next month…
Potentially risky (1)
High-pressure language discouraging due diligenceCaution
Craig found urgency language worth slowing down for.
Craig points out things worth a closer look. These are helpful hints, not a verdict: they can't tell you whether a listing is or isn't a scam.
- 01
Add Craig to Chrome
Install the extension in Chrome 120 or later. No account, no sign-up, nothing else to install.
- 02
Open a listing you’re considering
Go to a Craigslist rental and click the Craig icon in your toolbar.
- 03
Read the verdict
The score and label sum it up. Every flag shows the exact words or photos that set it off, and Craig says how many of its 16 checks ran.
- 04
Optional: turn on photo checks
Add a free Google key to check the listing’s photos too. The photo key guide walks you through it in about ten minutes.
Sixteen checks.
-
Listing photo also appears on a real-estate site
The scamScammers copy photos from a real home listed on Zillow or Redfin and repost it on Craigslist at a lower price, then ask for a deposit on a place they don’t own.
How Craig checksCraig uses Google’s reverse image search to look for the listing’s photos elsewhere, and flags any found on Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, Trulia, or an MLS page. It runs on your own Google key, so photos go straight to Google with no Craig server in between. The key is free for almost everyone and takes about ten minutes to set up: see the photo key guide.
Example
Exterior photo found on zillow.com, on a different listing
-
Rent at or below 65% of the local HUD benchmark
The scamA rent that’s too good to be true draws a flood of replies, and the pressure to grab the deal fast makes people send money before they check.
How Craig checksCraig compares the rent with HUD’s FY 2027 benchmark for that ZIP code and bedroom count, covering 1,395 ZIPs in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and the New York metro. A cue to verify, never proof.
Example
A 2BR at $1,500 where HUD’s rate for that ZIP is $3,000
See all 16 checksShow fewer
-
Payment requested by a method with no recourse
Wire transfers, gift cards, and crypto or payment apps “only”: money you cannot claw back once it is sent.
Example
…send the deposit by western union to hold the unit…
-
Money requested before the renter has seen the property
A deposit to hold or secure a place you have not walked through yet.
Example
…a deposit to secure the apartment before anyone else does…
-
Owner claims to be unreachable in person
Abroad, out of state, or on a mission trip, so there is no showing, only keys in the mail.
Example
…I am currently overseas for work until next spring…
-
High-pressure language discouraging due diligence
Urgency that pushes you to commit before you have checked anything.
Example
…act fast, several people are interested…
-
Seller steering away from a verifiable channel
Asks you not to call, or to talk only where the conversation is hard to trace.
Example
…email only, no calls please…
-
Payment requested before a tour, keys, or physical access
A fee, deposit, or rent due before a showing, the keys, or a lockbox code.
Example
…you must pay a deposit before the showing…
-
Contact details written to evade detection
Phone numbers spelled out or spaced apart, and emails written as “at” and “dot”, to slip past Craigslist’s filters.
Example
…text me at five one zero 555 0199…
-
Seller reachable only through the marketplace
No phone or email of their own, just the anonymous relay, so there is no one to look up.
Example
Reply button only: relay address, no phone or email on the post
-
Direct phone number provided
Shown to you and scored at zero: anything that lowers a score is something a scammer will write on purpose.
Example
A phone number listed directly on the post
-
Nonstandard hold or reservation fee
Hold, reservation, key-money, option, waitlist, or pre-lease fees: money committed before the lease process is complete.
Example
…a $300 holding fee reserves it for you…
-
Unusually high standard rental fee
Familiar fees set unusually high. Application fees over $50 by default; screening, move-in, and pet fees have their own ceilings.
Example
…application fee: $95 per adult…
-
Advertised rent conflicts with the page price by 10% or more
The price in the title and the listed price disagree: stale, or bait and switch.
Example
Title says $1,800; the listed price is $2,400
-
Listing photo carries an agency or MLS watermark
Google reads the writing in the photo and finds an agency or listing-site name.
Example
Photo 2 has Coldwell written in the corner
-
Listing photo is a stock image
The photo comes from Shutterstock, iStock, Unsplash, Getty Images, or Pexels.
Example
Living-room photo found on shutterstock.com
Six results you can read at a glance.
Look closer
A few minor indicators showed up — worth a look.
Verify first
Several indicators point to risk here.
High concern
Scam indicators, not proof — proceed carefully.
Scam likely
Hard signal found.
Partial check
Too few checks ran to give a confident read.
Private by design.
No listing is ever persisted
Craig keeps Google's results for photos checked in the last 24 hours, plus a count of photo checks used this month. Not the listing, not its text. Uninstalling Craig deletes all of it.
Your Vision key goes only to Google
It is stored only in this browser profile's extension storage and sent only to Google Cloud Vision. There are no Craig servers, accounts, or analytics.
A verified execution log
Every result carries a collapsed log of the real extension, engine, detector, cache and Vision stages—deliberately omitting credentials, listing text and image URLs.
Rules you can read and edit
The Options page has a visual builder for curated pattern checks and preserves custom, contact, image and regex rules as read-only cards. The engine validates every rule you save.
Ready to win
the housing war?
Install Craig
