This weekend, I spent some time on craiglist checking out the opportunities. I saw an ad for a great looking rental house way under market rate - at least 50% below. The ad had photos and an address of a real house (I could verify they matched via street view), but no phone number, so I got a little suspicious of a scam. Mostly because I was curious how the scam worked, I dropped an email to the address in question which was @yahoo. This morning I got a reply:
I did get your response concerning the AD I posted on craigslist. The house is still available but presently I'm not around.. I did bid for a portion of petroleum land sometimes ago in West Africa and fortunately I won the bidding so I have to move quickly down to Africa to have my company set up because I will still have to rebid for it in the next 10 years. I came over here with my wife, we both built the house when we got married.. As soon as we settle down here I had a thought of selling the house so I have to look for an agent, after getting one, we got a deal but later my wife advised against that. She said we may not be able to win the bidding next time, in other to keep our head when we return that we have to keep the house. I reasoned with her and accepted her advise. So I contacted the agent back and requested for my keys and documents. Later we decided to have the house rent out, we would have give the same agent this job also but the truth of the matter is that the agent would want to handle it professionally and the occupant may not be able to reason along with him later. If you notice, you will discovered that the price we are offering is far below standard price, this is enough for you to know that we are not after the rental fee but the absolute care for the property. I know there is no way I can be sure that you are the right person to live in the house because we won't be able to see physical before sending you the keys and the documents to occupy the space. But I just had a feeling that anyone who knows what it takes to put the kind of structure down should know that maintaining a building is mandatory, so if you belief you can take good care of the house and handle it like yours then I will be more than happy to let you rent the house.
Please if you are ready now to occupy the house kindly provide the information below for record purpose
PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
Full Name__________________________________________________ Home Phone ( ) ________________________
Date of Birth_________________________________
Other Phone ( ) ___________________
Current Address_______________________________Apt#________ City__________________ State______ Zip________
Reasons for Leaving____________________________Rent $__________Phone ( ) ____________________________
Are you married____________________________
How many people will be living in the house____________________________
How many people will be living in the house____________________________
Do you have a pet____________________________
Do you have a car____________________________
Occupation____________________________
Move In Date____________________________
P.S: YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO VIEW THE INTERIOR PART OF THE HOUSE BECAUSE THE KEYS ARE HERE WITH ME AND THERE IS NOBODY WHO CAN SHOW YOU THE HOUSE
He also provided an international phone number - with country code (you guessed it) Nigeria, My guess is that with this information, my friend here can open a line of credit in my name. If not, I'm sure the next email will require my social security number for a credit check. It's so sad.
11 comments:
He doesn't want your data, he wants you to pay the first rent (+ perhaps a deposit). Then you'll notice that he isn't sending you the keys and probably that someone else is actually living there. Advance fee fraud ("419") - you pay in advance based on a promise (you get the keys, cheap rent) that he won't deliver.
Oh and I bet this works like a charm in the current economy. Since he lives in Nigeria (or Amsterdam or London or whereever) he won't really care when he steals money from someone who is down on their luck & is running out of money (these people are often the most gullible)... Bah.
Agreed. Getting me to pay first month's rent makes alot of sense. A little less scary than identity theft, but still pretty horrible.
I hope it doesn't work like a charm. I was pretty sure it was a scam going into it, I was just curious enough to try to figure out how it works that I dropped an email to him.
I wonder if Gmail could detect these types of emails automatically and give links to some further information on how these types of fraud work or something.
Are you kidding me? That is super sketchy! Thanks for sharing. It is good to be aware of the newest scams, since they seem to be getting pretty crafty.
Ha! I just received the same e-mail after responding to an ad in Portland, OR. The scammer even used a yahoo address with the name of the actual property owner, and knew when the house was built. They're clever enough to check tax records online.
I just recieved the same E-mail from him for a property in Hollywood Florida. I googled "craigslist scam" to double check and found you guys. can't he be turmed in or something?
After finding a house in Junction City that seemed to good to be true, I googled bidding on land in Africa, and low and behold I received this same email. WOW! What is WRONG WITH PEOPLE!!!!! WHERE HAVE ALL OF THE HONEST PEOPLE GONE!?!?!?!?
I received this for a property in Hartford, CT.
It does sound too good to be true, which is why I searched online. But I am sure there will be others who would not be as alert and will succumb to this scam.
Gosh, I'm so thankful people are posting this up. I actually just found one on craigslist, this is the exact response I got.I am really confused by how detail and weird he talks about things. And I don't believe there's such free lunch.So my friend checked it out online, saw your blog. Thanks for helping us not wasting time.
I actually live in this town, and went to school with the owners of the houses sons. I let the "sketchyness" of the deal slide beacuase I thought I knew who it was. Once I drove by and saw all of the cars still in the driveway I knew it was fake. I found the mom(owner) on Facebook and she let me know it was absolutly a scam...Small world and crazy people!!!
I fell for this and sent the information he requested for a home in Lee's Summit, MO. We actually spoke with him on the phone and he was going to email us the "contract" for us to sign. I'm sure it would have included instructions for sending money. When he threw in the utilities until the end of the year, we thought it sounded fishy and started some google searches. The FTC has information on this scam as well. It's good to hear that they just want the money, although I have put fraud alerts out at the crediting agencies. It makes you feel so vulnerable.
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