Lost $60 on a parking spot rental scam near Wrigleyville last month

Found a sublet listing for a spot on Craigslist, paid via Zelle, and the guy ghosted me the day I showed up with my car. Anyone else run into fake parking rentals around the North Side?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninal9114d ago

ugh the "paid via Zelle" part is your first red flag right there. Zelle has basically zero buyer protection, it's like handing cash to a stranger. I get why people use it, it's fast and easy, but for this kind of thing you really gotta stick with PayPal goods and services or even a credit card so you can dispute it. Craigslist parking scams are super common near Wrigley especially during game season, they know people are desperate. next time check if the spot is actually owned by a real management company or look up the address on google maps first. sorry you lost the cash, that really sucks.

jade_hernandez14d ago

Actually the PayPal "goods and services" thing isn't always foolproof either... I had a friend get scammed on there last year and PayPal sided with the seller even though she had screenshots of everything. And about the Wrigley thing, you're totally right that those parking scams are everywhere during game season, but check this out - a lot of the lots near Wrigley are actually run by private homeowners who just rent out their driveway, so there's no "management company" to look up most of the time. The real trick is to ask for a photo of the spot with something recent in it like today's newspaper or a street sign that matches Google Maps... scammers usually can't provide that on the spot. Also Zelle does actually have some fraud protection if you report it quick enough but it's not like a credit card chargeback where you just get your money back right away.

willowc6013d ago

Nah, Zelle's actually legit if you know what you're doing. I've used it for years selling stuff on FB Marketplace and never had an issue cause I only send money after I see the item in person. People just gotta be smarter about when they hit send instead of blaming the app every time.