Craigslist Scam Attempts

For the first time I have posted my rental property on craigslist.org to find tenants. here is the listing:

http://bloomington.craigslist.org/apa/1317115265.html

The listing has done pretty well. I received five phone calls the first day, and have a couple serious leads. But, I have also received two scam attempts in 24 hours, as well as what I would assume is a third attempt that was abandonded. It is amazing how similar the structure is of these scams. If these people had half a brain, they would tweak the language in the e-mails to at least try to make it sound legit. Then again, if these people were intelligent at all, they wouldn’t need to try to steal from others to make a living. Perhaps they have a bright future in government!

Here are the scams:
—————————————————-

http://www.callferret.com/447031959952.html

I will be in the states for the next one year with my wife. we have a financier that is based in the states and he will be handling the rent deposit payment on our behalf,we will instruct him to send you the check for this as soon as you give us the go ahead to make payment to you.

Due to the limited time that we have before our arrival,we are making arrangements with a furniture company to supply the home with furniture,so we will need you to provide us with the measurements of the living room and bedroom so that we can send it to the furniture company so that they can supply the unit with furniture that will fit in well.

We can start the lease asap and we will be doing a one year lease You can prepare the lease in my my name Dr john Porter and my wife’s name Mrs Nancy Porter Let us know how to move ahead as we intend to complete this deal before we move in we will let you know the exact date as soon as we get a booking on a flight to the states.

As regards the rent and deposit required to be paid by me in order to
secure this rental prior to our arrival,i will need you to provide me with your full name,cell number both home and office.

The check will be issued to your complete physical contact address,as soon as you provide these and give go-ahead,i will forward it to my financier with an instruction to issue and send you the check.Please i need you to also reconfirm the total move in costs,that is the rent and deposit to be paid.

Also i would like to know more about about the power and phone company if there is anyone i will need to be contacting,PS make sure you state the measurement’s in next email you can either send measurement’s in metric or Americans measurement’s. I will look forward to your e mail with the required information. Due regards from me and my family,we are looking forward to meeting you soon.

you can either send the lease through email or to my mailing postal
address united kingdom :


name..Dr john Porter
wife name….Nancy Porter
address….33 Clarendon Park, Clumber Avenue.
city………Nottingham
state…..Nottinghamshire
zip code…….NG10 1BZ

cell number+447031959952

—————————————————-

Hey Christopher,
Thanks for the reply.You’ve spoken wisely and I must tell you
that both the price and explanations are ok by me.This clearly shows
how committed you are in renting the place.As I have said earlier that
I am coming to conduct a research on behalf of my company,In this case
my boss is solely responsible for every expenses is going to cost me
to get to the state.All he wants me to do is to get a suitable place
for myself and which I have found with you.Also to provide him the
information to which payment can be made to.As a result of this I need
you to give me your……….
FULL NAME
FULL ADDRESS
CONTACT PHONE
So that I can forward it to my boss for prompt payment prior to
my arrival to secure that your beautiful place and I can’t afford to
miss that place because it’s ok by me.Furthermore,my boss will be
issuing a check in excess.From which you’ll deduct your rent and get
the remaining money to my travel agent who resides in the state via
western union so that necessary documents and ticket can be arranged
for me to get to the place as soon as possible.I will be so much glad
to read from you…I hope to seeing you soon…


Thanks,Sandra

—————————————————-

from Christopher Dickens <>
to Alvin High

date Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 9:03 PM
subject Re: I’M INTERESTED IN YOUR APARTMENT

mailed-by gmail.com


hide details 9:03 PM (11 hours ago)
Reply

Follow up message


Yes? You have questions?
-cmd-


- Hide quoted text -

On Aug 11, 2009, at 20:48, Alvin High wrote:

How are you?I want to make inquiry for this apartments.


5 comments

Comment from: John Makay [Visitor]
I received the the same scam and they cost me a day in lease preparation and e-mail. I suspected the English issue immediately. But the second e-mail was written in perfect English so they seem to be coming a bit more wise on the English issue. I did actually call the number and someone answered who did not speak English. I heard non-English accent with some tones of French in it. Sounded like a woman or man with a high pitched voice who said to call back in 30 minutes. The question I have is what are they actually after. Is it to give them your name address and phone number or do they want something else?

Is there someone else we can report this to protect others? Should I call the UK authorities as well?
11/29/09 @ 07:36
Comment from: John Makay [Visitor]
I suggest you submit a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. The weblink is as folllows for the rental scam. It a fairly straightforward process and not very time consuming.

Link

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en#last

Please reference my complaint number and name
John Makay
24752444
11/29/09 @ 08:13
Comment from: sarah [Visitor]
I have just had the same experience... the letters read the same. What are these guys trying to get?

12/03/09 @ 03:28
Comment from: Cassandra Hoffman [Visitor]
I googled John Woods address to see if a renter was legit. I just had a hard time believing that a family was moving from such a far away place and needed me to accept money for furniture that was being delivered. I am sure now that the money i received would have been fraud and the furniture delivered was part of the scam.

Please see the emails he wrote..

I will also need you to send me a mailing address because most courier do not deliver to a box address i can put a deposit down by bank check moreover you should understand that transiting cross Atlantic is not easy so we are making arrangement with the furniture company to deliver the furniture before our arrival after the rent and security deposit has been paid to you by my financier.

we will ask you for a favor here,can we rely on you to take delivery of the furniture for us when they are delivered?

We will instruct the furniture company to contact you to schedule a delivery date and time
that will be convenient for you to receive the furniture for,you will be handling the delivery of the furniture for us,

we will ask our financier to include the costs of our furniture with the rent and deposit to be sent to you so that you can hep us make payment when it is delivered.

we will really appreciate if you can do this for us and promise to compensate you adequately for your time and efforts on our arrival in your place.i would also want you to put off the advert of the units from craigslist.orgs

***************************************************
I will be willing to put 1 month rent plus the security deposit in order to secure this unit prior to our arrival. you can send me the lease form and picture view of the living room and bed rooms. I can wait until i arrive to fill out the application paper works so as for me to enable a photocopy of my original identification on papers.

I am sure you would need reference so here is my home page to regards what we will be doing while we are in the united states

http://www.johnwoodsnurseries.co.uk/RVEab94a39afa9344fba7dda62f4ef85923,,.aspx


Everything shall be signed physically when i arrive. As of me and my wife opinions that appending signatories should be done properly.

Please,send me more picture view of the living room and bed rooms.

We can deal directly without no third party i.e rental/management company.

Been an international situation my financier in the states will be making provision of funds to you after we both agreed on other terms of the lease.

I believe we can work together and ensure every arrangements that we shall both execute in line with us taking up the tenancy

John & Patricia wood




12/21/09 @ 22:25
Comment from: Christy [Visitor]
I received pretty much exactly the same email from "John and Patricia Wood". I felt like this is really weird too and the grammer was definetly a red flag. I even received a "certified check". Thank god we found out before we went any futher with this. But what are they gaining? I can't believe there are such creepy people out there not caring about ruining peoples lives.
01/16/10 @ 23:52

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