San Bruno Team Scammed by Craiglist Rental Ad

A San Bruno youth soccer team was nearly left out in the cold this past weekend after finding out that a home they had rented on Craigslist for a Palm Springs tournament was part of a scam.

The team manager, Alfonso Esqueda, and his wife had been communicating with the alleged owner of the home for at least a month and had verified the bank information of the person before making a wire transfer on behalf of AYSO's 12-and-under Strikers team. The team was participating in the two-day state tournament for AYSO in Palm Springs.

But when the team arrived at the address listed in the ad, Esqueda said, all they found was an empty lot, and their $650 deposit and the Craigslist contact, Kelvin Potter, was nowhere to be found.

"We went down there for an adventure and we got an adventure," Esqueda said.

Esqueda said the team had to find budget hotels to stay in during the trip, but the kids still had a good time (they placed fourth in the tournament).

But he was shocked that someone would stoop that low to bilk a group of kids from hundreds of dollars. They had spent weeks raising money for the trip, Esqueda said. But the team ended up spending three times the amount they had planned as a result of the fraudulent Craiglist ad.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, online scams are typical and usually involve wiring money.

Scammers know they can get the money quickly and that someone can't get it back, the FTC said. Typically, there is no way to reverse a transfer or trace the money either.

As a safety precaution, the FTC recommends that people never wire money to strangers or someone you haven't met in person. It can be especially risky with apartment rentals, according to the FTC, because scammers often hijack a real rental listing by changing the contact information and placing the altered ad on other sites.

Esqueda said the team reported the scam to the local police, and the case is under investigation.

At the end of the day, though, he said he'll just take the scam as a lesson learned. As a recommendation to others, he said, it is always just best to go through the extra steps when booking accommodations online instead of trusting everything in an ad.

"You think you're saving money," he said, "but, in the long run, you're going to get scammed."

For more news about San Bruno, follow San Bruno Patch on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook. Got Patch in your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter.