Scammer wants to rent my room in Australia

Here's my scammer story. Luckily I realised it was a scam before I lost any money, but I am still upset at the waste of time and the fact I lost the opportunity to rent out my room because I stopped looking after I thought I found my renter.

I am a student going away for holiday for two months over summer break and I have advertised my room in a share house in Australia on the local University website.
A student claiming to be from the UK (with a very anglo-saxon British sounding name) replied to my add saying she was coming to my University for summer school and was looking for a place to stay. She asked about the room and the flat mates, said a bit about herself and asked about what was included and how far the accommodation is from all the relevant amenities.

So far, the English was sophisticated and the story seemed plausible, so I had no reason to suspect anything. She said she wanted to see the place on Google Maps and wanted the address of the house with the room I'm renting so I emailed my address to her.

She wrote back with a few more questions obviously "she" had looked at the place on google and looked up a few things about the city in which I live. I answered the questions and I said I need a deposit of A$900 to secure the room, I asked for a Western Union transfer to me. She said she didn't want to send Western Union because she can only just afford the plane ticket and the room and can't afford to also pay the transfer fees. She said her father had a friend in Australia who could mail me a cheque from an Australian Account - could her father's friend mail me a cheque for the deposit to the address I'd already given her?

At this point it sounds a little weird but I guess she might be worried I'm a scammer and I don't actually have any room for her to rent. From the beginning it was always my intention to rent to someone local who could actually come and inspect the room and meet my flatmates and pay a deposit in cash or use the escrow service at the University. Anyway I've given her my address already and I'm half way sure that she's going to be the one to rent my room so I reply "yes - mail me the cheque to the address I'd given earlier, as long as the money clears I'll keep holding the room for you."

A week goes by and I don't have my cheque and the date I need to go on holiday is fast approaching, so I email back - "I haven't got your deposit so I'm showing my room to other potential renters."

I get a reply back from a new email address - "This is Portias dad, Portias mother is sick and her departure to Australia is delayed as she sits by her bed praying to God for His mercy for her ful recovery, please be understanding of our difficult time, my friend has sent you a cheque you should be getting soon, god bless you support you are wonderful person, im so happy that you are kind to my daughter she will be the best to share your virtuous house she is the jewel every family would be proud god bless. You cant lose any rent holding the accommodation, i m paying the rent starting the first day you are holding the room for my daughter. She is a dream to every family i m so proud of her, her bond is in the post already, the money was sent to you from regular mail.Send a receipt when you receive the money. Zephaniah"

By now I think things are really weird and I doubt very much that the father of a girl from UK with a very British family name would have an obscure biblical prophet as a first name and such bad English. But now its too late I've gone on holiday already and I didn't manage to rent my room to anybody else and I have to continue to pay rent for my room while I'm on holiday. So I figure I'd wait and see if any money actually shows up - maybe they are for real, maybe they are just a simultaneously unlucky and abnormal family.

A few days into my trip I get an email from my house mate, I've received a letter at my house from Maria Broughton. I tell my flat mate to open it,he says its a cheque for A$3000 from an Australian bank, with no letter or explanation with the cheque. I think this is pretty cool, they were legitimate after all, I'll get my deposit of $900 plus I can deduct the rent for the whole holding period and my whole holiday! About the same time I receive an email from Zephariah asking if I've got the cheque. I reply yes I got the cheque for $3000, less deposit less three weeks holding the room. So balance of A$1,650. I tell him I can give the balance to Portia as cash when she arrives or else I'll continue to deduct the rent from it each week as I continue to hold the room awaiting the arrival of Portia.

A cheque at my house is not much good to me while I'm on holiday, so I give my bank account number to my flatmate (its OK I trust him) and he fills out a deposit slip at my bank and deposits the cheque on my behalf.

Now, I get an email from Zephariah saying that the friend (Maria White) sent too much money by accident and the friend was supposed to send me $1000 and $2000 was supposed to go to Portia in London. Now Portia is stuck in London and cant get to Australia to rent the room unless I send her the $2000 by Western Union and he gives instructions on how to send a Western Union Money transfer but I need to make out the name of the Western Union transfer to yet another name - someone who is supposed to be Portia's travel agent

First up there's no way I'm sending any money until the cheque clears. I do some googling and find this site and learn that sometimes if the cheque is a forgery it can still clear, but later on when the fraud is investigated the bank takes the money back out of your account... So I give up on the plan of waiting to see if the cheque clears... Instead, now that my suspicions are tweaked I search the email header and I discover the IP addresses of both Pamela and her father are both from Lagos Nigeria (not that this is proof in and of itself) but they said they were in the UK and they asked for money by Western Union so now I am positive its a scam. (From now on I'm checking email headers and IP addresses from anyone who sends me an email I don't already know well).

Next step is to contact my bank and tell the story, they said "no problems thanks for reporting as soon as you found out" - the bank later told me the cheque was a forgery.

I also asked my flatmate to look at the envelope the cheque came in, it had a name and address on the back from australia that matched the name on the cheque. However the not very observant flatmate didn't notice until now that the stamp was from Benin.

I've since got an email from Zephariah "Update me about the last mail i sent you regarding the money you received."

So obviously it was a scam averted. Now I would invite the forums advice on a few questions:
This guy has my real name, real address and my email and I don't want to have to change any of these unless its really necessary. I'd like to discourage this guy from using my details in the future. I can imagine his next scammee might get a check purportedly from me and my real address.

My next step is to make him lose interest in me, but I'd also like to do something to minimise the chances he will want to use my name and address in the future.

If he didn't already have my address I wouldn't hesitate to do any of the following things, but since he does, might there be any benefit in scaring him or scamming him back?

1. If I said the bank contacted me and have traced his emails and the FBI / Nigerian Police / Australian Federal Police are after him - is there any chance this could scare him into not using his aliases anymore.

2. Could it be the only record he keeps of my details are in the saved mails on his Ymail account, if so would it be worth hacking his email or flooding his email so he would abandon that email address and be unable to check my address?

3. Is it worth taking a chance that he's stupid and tell him I've moved address and give a new fake address and hope he might delete my real address details and update with the new fake address details?

4. Is it worth telling him the bank or the australian police wants to help him recovery his money that has been stolen from him by the friend (Maria). The australian federal police also have recovered another $345000 from Maria and want to find the rightful owners and return the money to the rightful owners. All he has to do is send me copies of his passport and proof of address and he can western union me the $1000 for the application fee?

5. Should I tell him 4 above, except give the contact details for the Australian Police?

6. I'm also thinking of ignoring him, fully expecting him to persist with more and more emails getting more and more desperate then angry asking for the refund. But the more time this guy spends on me I figure the more he is going to feel like he deserves a pay off and the more likely he might become to be malicious towards my identity - I imagine if he got pissed off he might try to hack or flood my email or maybe sign me up to stuff I dont want using my name and address. Has this sort of thing ever happened to anyone before?

7. I'd like for my story to be helpful in warning others from falling victim. But I have deliberately withheld all identifying features from the story, so that Mr Zephariah doesn't know I'm on to him - at least until I decide what to do next. Is it likely that the email addresses used for this scam is unique to their attempted scam of me or would he be trying to scam others with the same email? I ask this question because if he finds his email is blacklisted or SPAM'd or whatever I might try to do or others might try to do if I publish his email then if he has only created this email address to scam me, then he will know that I have been the one who has blacklisted him... like I said he does have my real address, and many of the posts I have read here warn not to publish identifying details of yourself because you dont want to receive threats from people who know who and where you are...

Thanks for a great site and great community to make it all happen, and thanks in advance for your answers...

Thanks Frack for telling your story it will help more victims not to fall for this scam in the future.
This scam is very common and sadly many people fall for it.

The best advice is to cease all the communications with them since they have your real life information. If you like, you can send them a short message that the bank discovered that the cheque was forge. They will go away looking for another victim.

They can't do much with your details unless you sent them something they can re-use (like passport or id).

You can post their emails, the headers and the addresses in a new thread in the rental scams forum. This will help any potential victim!

Welcome Frack,

As Norman said, the best thing to do is to drop the scammer--but I'll answer your other questions anyway!

1. If I said the bank contacted me and have traced his emails and the FBI / Nigerian Police / Australian Federal Police are after him - is there any chance this could scare him into not using his aliases anymore.

I'm not sure if you are asking whether he will stop scamming, or whether he will change aliases. For the first--not a chance. IP addresses generally won't get you an exact location. He is most likely using a public internet cafe used by hundreds of other people. He has hidden behind fake identities, and he likely knows corrupt officials he can bribe on the off chance he gets in trouble. If he has been scamming for any length of time, he has probably received numerous similar threats. As to changing his alias, he might--and that's actually what we don't want. If he continues to use this alias and it is posted here, the next victim may be alerted before losing money. If he changes, the next victim may not learn the truth.

2. Could it be the only record he keeps of my details are in the saved mails on his Ymail account, if so would it be worth hacking his email or flooding his email so he would abandon that email address and be unable to check my address?

Scammers are used to having accounts closed--many of them copy or forward victim information for this reason--so getting your info out of his email wouldn't gain much--and we can't recommend hacking as it is illegal. He may try to harass or threaten you in an attempt to get you to send the cash--but beyond that, if you just walk away, there is really no significant reason to be concerned he has your name and address. It's easy to get that information about millions of people anyway..

3. Is it worth taking a chance that he's stupid and tell him I've moved address and give a new fake address and hope he might delete my real address details and update with the new fake address details?

Same as above, no point in stressing over him having your name and address.

4. Is it worth telling him the bank or the australian police wants to help him recovery his money that has been stolen from him by the friend (Maria). The australian federal police also have recovered another $345000 from Maria and want to find the rightful owners and return the money to the rightful owners. All he has to do is send me copies of his passport and proof of address and he can western union me the $1000 for the application fee?

Scammers routinely run recovery scams. He will recognize this as a recovery scam. He may send you a fake passport, but he is not going to be sending money by WU. The most he'll do, even if he were to believe you, would be another fake check or use a stolen credit card. This just puts you deeper in illegal activity.

5. Should I tell him 4 above, except give the contact details for the Australian Police?

The Australian police do not need to spend their time trying to figure out what is going on--and legally, even if he contacts them, they have no authority to get him arrested.

6. I'm also thinking of ignoring him, fully expecting him to persist with more and more emails getting more and more desperate then angry asking for the refund. But the more time this guy spends on me I figure the more he is going to feel like he deserves a pay off and the more likely he might become to be malicious towards my identity - I imagine if he got pissed off he might try to hack or flood my email or maybe sign me up to stuff I dont want using my name and address. Has this sort of thing ever happened to anyone before?

Yes, but not usually when you simply drop them, or when you simply tell them that the bank told you the check was fake, and not to contact you again. Losing victims at this stage is just a normal part of business for them. When we bait scammers, and waste huge amounts of their time and money sending them on wild goose chases, they can get pretty angry. That is why when we bait scammers, we bait safely. You can see more about that at our sister site, 419eater.

7.

I'd like for my story to be helpful in warning others from falling victim. But I have deliberately withheld all identifying features from the story, so that Mr Zephariah doesn't know I'm on to him - at least until I decide what to do next. Is it likely that the email addresses used for this scam is unique to their attempted scam of me or would he be trying to scam others with the same email? I ask this question because if he finds his email is blacklisted or SPAM'd or whatever I might try to do or others might try to do if I publish his email then if he has only created this email address to scam me, then he will know that I have been the one who has blacklisted him... like I said he does have my real address, and many of the posts I have read here warn not to publish identifying details of yourself because you dont want to receive threats from people who know who and where you are...

It is best if you post the scammers' info after removing info that is relevant to you. The scammer will sometimes figure out who posted it, but the truth is, he has probably sent the same email out to dozens, if not hundreds, of people, so it is equally likely he will have no idea which victim reported him. And don't tell him you posted him, of course.
Some scammers change emails often, others continue under the same details for months-and even if they don't use the same email address, they may use the same scripted emails. For that reason, posting the scammer details and the actual emails can help others to avoid being scammed (and get you some revenge by keeping money out of his pocket).

Thanks Frank and Dotti for your considered answers.

You can probably tell my initial reaction to this scam attempt is a combination of anger at being duped and concern that such a malicious person as this scammer might have the connections and motivation to "punish" me in some way for not falling for his trap.

No, I haven't sent them any more information than my name and address, certainly I didn't send any Identification documents, the more I read other posts on this forum and the more I think about, I am getting the mental image of the scammer as some loser slaving away in an internet cafe living in urban squalor trying to succeed at the only thing he knows has the potential to make a fast buck.

I imagine he probably is subjugated to some small time local crime boss who provides him with computers and documents in return for some unfair incentive and commission program. I imagine as soon as he finds out I'm not going to turn into a money tree for him, its not worth his while to pursue me any further, he needs to concentrate on any other targets who haven't yet wised up to the scam.

What surprised me is how this scam from Nigeria, has invaded my innocent locale. It wasn't just some ridiculous unsolicited email with a crazy "too good to be true" bait. It was a well rehearsed, sophisticated sting and I was chosen from a local university on-line message board.

I think the most reassuring answer for me from both Frank and Dotti's answers is that its really no big deal if someone, (even a criminal) has your name and address, as long as they don't also have any other unique or secret information about you, or a strong reason for vendetta.

Even so, I don't want the scammer to know specifically that it was me who outed him on a website like this.

I certainly support efforts to increase the awareness of these scams amongst to all law abiding citizens of the world, and for this reason I will take the time to de-identify myself from my correspondence and get it posted elsewhere in this forum.

However, I think for me the most important thing is this:
No matter the circumstance when you are communicating by email, whether you are buying something, renting somewhere, selling something, helping someone, getting to know someone, flirting with someone ---> if you don't already know the person well and you don't already have overwhelming proof that the they are who they say they are...
1. Never send money Western Union - ever, no matter how good the story or how good the outcome might seem to be

2. YOU MUST get the email header information and enter it into a place like here:
http://www.mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx

then get the IP addresses and search them in a place like here:
http://www.iptrackeronline.com

This will help you determine if you are being conned.

I guess, if its not already happening, it wont be long before it is easy to disguise this information. For the time being in the majority of cases it might help people stay away from scammers if they check this stuff routinely.

If I had done this at the beginning - I would have seen both "Portia" and "her" "dad' were emailing from Nigeria even though they said they were from UK - so I could have ignored them a lot sooner.

Is there a Thunderbird plug in that allows you easily check the place of origin of your emails? Surely this is going to be a helpful thing for the not so computer savvy people who are currently the prime targets for the scammers?

OK back to the topic of what is happening in my scam.

I opened an email address with a name similar to my real email but not quite the same. I copied the scammers last email to me which included some of the previous emails between me and the scammer. In all these old pasted emails I went through and changed my email address to the new email address, I also changed (subtely) my address that he has pasted in those emails.
Its a long shot but I'm hoping he might delete old emails and keep the new one with my wrong address.
Anyway I realise these steps have minimal chance of success, but its a small effort to make just in case it works.

OK so after doing that, I just wrote:

"Zephariah,
Your cheque was a fake. The Nigerian police are investigating. Get lost scammer."

I figure this is not terribly insulting and not very threatening because he can hide in anonymity, but at least he has got the message I know he is a fake and I know his emails originate from Nigeria, and he will probably calculate its not worth his while to try to follow up on his scam with me.
I sent that email 8 hours ago and so far no response to either my real email address or my new email address.
I will post here if there are any follow up emails from him or other suspicious characters with a Nigerian IP address (I'm imagining he might try to send me emails claiming to be from Nigerian Police or FBI or whatever).

OK spread the word, avoid the scam, check the IP address!

Oh ps, I have nothing personal against Nigeria or any other place or group, but they said they were from UK but their email headers show they were sending from Nigeria and they send me a fake cheque, so unless someone I already know who tells me by way other than email that they are in Nigeria I will be checking IP address ignoring all future emails from Nigeria.