I use Craigslist very often in the US and now moving to HK. I realized that there are quite a few scams on craigslist for housing and there are a few threads as well on this. My 2 cents on how to spot/identify if the ad on craigslist is a scam:

1) Person cannot show you the apartment but wants your money upfront even BEFORE you see the place.
2) The person says that they are currently somewhere in Africa/West Africa/Nigeria on missions. (Not to offend a genuine case)
3) They want you to send them money upfront over Western union.
4) Use of phrase such as "God Fearing" (my favorite)
5) They claim that they can send you the keys in mail without meeting in person. Very bad idea.
6) They fail to respond to your basic questions about the apartment, utilities, community etc. Instead, they try to divert the topic by responding generically such as "the place is great", ""see it for yourself", "dont let this one go" etc etc.
6) Most importantly, the offer looks TOO GOOD to be true. Remember, if it smells fishy, it most likely is.


I am sure there are plenty more to add here