Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are how millions of Miami residents buy, sell, and rent every day. They're also hunting grounds for scammers who know exactly how to exploit the trust built into peer-to-peer transactions. Miami's density, high tourist traffic, and large transient population make it one of the most active markets in the country for online listing fraud.
Here are the scams you're most likely to encounter and exactly what to watch for.
This is the most financially damaging scam on these platforms. Scammers copy legitimate rental listings from Zillow or Apartments.com — including the real photos and description — and repost them on Marketplace or Craigslist at a lower price. They claim to be the owner and ask for a deposit to "hold" the unit.
Common setups: the owner is traveling and can't show the unit in person; they'll mail the keys once you send a deposit via Zelle, Cash App, or wire transfer. Some will even create fake lease agreements. By the time you show up to move in, either the unit is occupied by someone who actually rented it legitimately, or the address doesn't exist.
Rule: Never send a deposit on a rental you haven't toured in person and confirmed with the verified property owner. Search the address on the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser site (propertysearch.miamidade.gov) to confirm who actually owns the unit.
You're selling something — furniture, a car, electronics. A buyer contacts you and says they'll pay more than your asking price because their "company" is covering it. They send a check (or Zelle, or a money order) for more than the agreed amount and ask you to refund the difference.
The check bounces — sometimes days later, after your bank has already made the funds "available." The money order is counterfeit. The Zelle payment gets reversed. You've sent real money to someone who gave you nothing real in return. Your bank holds you responsible for the returned funds.
Absolute rule: Never accept payment for more than the sale price. Never send back a "difference." If someone offers to overpay, it is always a scam, no exceptions.
For in-person transactions — especially for high-value items like electronics, jewelry, or cars — some buyers show up with counterfeit bills. The cash looks real and even passes casual inspection. You won't know until you try to deposit it or a business flags it.
A scammer lists a high-value item — a phone, laptop, gaming console, designer item — at a believable price with real photos. When you meet, they show you the item briefly, then find a way to swap it for a broken or counterfeit version during the handoff. Common methods include distraction, switching bags, or handing you a box that was swapped before the meetup.
Miami has year-round events — concerts, festivals, Heat games, Dolphins games, Ultra Music Festival. Scammers post fake tickets on Marketplace and Craigslist, collect payment, and either send screenshots of real tickets that have already been used, or simply disappear after payment. You show up to the venue and the ticket scans as invalid.
For high-value tickets: Platforms like Ticketmaster allow ticket transfers directly between accounts. This is the only truly safe way to buy secondhand — the ticket leaves their account and enters yours before any money changes hands.
Craigslist and Marketplace are full of vehicle listings that don't match reality. Common schemes include: a car listed at below-market price because the owner is "moving out of state immediately" and needs a quick sale (usually a phishing setup asking for a deposit before you can even see it); a real car with a cloned VIN masking a salvage title or stolen history; and test drive setups where the "buyer" either steals the vehicle or swaps a key fob.
A buyer or renter contacts you and says they need to "verify you're real" before meeting. They ask you to share a Google Voice verification code or a code sent to your phone. If you share it, they've just hijacked your phone number or set up a Google Voice number tied to your real number — which they'll use to scam other people while you absorb the consequences.
Never share a verification code with anyone. No legitimate buyer, renter, or seller needs a code sent to your phone. This is always identity theft.
Before you meet anyone from Marketplace or Craigslist: Search their name, phone number, and the item description on Google. Copy their profile photo into Google Images. Check MiamiScammers.com. Five minutes of research can save you from a scam that has already hit dozens of other people in your area.