San Francisco Rental scam - silly me

I was a victim of a scam just 2 days ago.
I wanted to rent an apartment in the Bay Area of SF this summer. After looking for a few days and contacting some posts on craigslist, one of them contacted me back. The english was not very good, had typos here and there, but I thought that it's ok. She said that she was in Oregon for a job shift, and needed to rent the house immediately. She also told me she had an accident and couldn't hear very well, so don't call her. She needed money because she had to pay for the medical bill, so she asked for $400 deposit, and if I paid two months upfront ($600 each), I'd get the third one free. It sounded too good to be true, but my stupidity told me that she was a nice and pity person. So I agreed and she asked me for $800 via Western Union, and she would send the keys and I would make another payment when I received the keys.
My wife told me it did not seem right, but I still went ahead with the transfer and thought that sending money inside US is safe (NO, it is NOT).
After receiving the money, she came back and asked for the rest $800 because her lawyer told her it needed to be two months. I started to feel she is a scammer, so I asked for her identity and proof of ownership (which I should have done earlier). She kept sending me images of herself (who knows), (fake) certificates, (fake) lease contract and tried to convince me that she was good. Until I said I want my money back, she never replied again.
Just want to share my story so that others can be aware of. Here is the name, address and email of the scammer:

Sandra Perry
16205 NW Fescue Court, Portland, OR 97729
[email protected]

The post was taken down from craigslist already. The IP address of her emails turns out to be from Lagos, Nigeria. This is a standard 419 scam, and I was just naive enough to fall into it.

Take home lessons:
- Western Union + craigslist = 100% scam
- If it's too good to be true, it's definitely not
- Don't be greedy

Welcome to ScamWarners tiendatbk. I am sorry you were taken in by this scammer. As you have discovered, scammers have touching stories and they totally misreoresent the truth. They also have ways of claiming money sent to a country they do not live in.

You have given excellent advice.

Hello,
sorry to hear this.

It s similar to the fraud I was victim.
It was for a flat in London, I received a contract and an ID card before pay,the ip address was from UK, but after I pay the deposit of 500 pounds via western union, she ask me to pay 2 month rent, than 1, because her lawyer suggest that was better for her.
She call me, and it was a man with a bad/african accent, and I say to go to hell and F=== and after this I m still receiving email that say that she will wait for me at the airport

Thanks for your sympathy. I still feel pretty bad about myself, but things will only improve from now on.
When I contacted Western Union Consumer Fraud department, the lady there told me one thing that I will keep for life: "Western Union is only for friends and family. Never use it to send money to anyone but friends and family".

Hi tiendatbk!
I'm also sorry to hear about your experience. I live in the S.F. Bay area and have been looking at the Craigslist rentals for this area daily, for a couple of years now. The site is full of scammers, it's just unbelievable. I always start by googling the address given, if it's posted. If I'm not 100% sure that it's a scam and I would be interested in the rental if it's legit, I send an email from one of my "anonymous" email addresses. One that is not tied to any of my real life information. That way, when the reply comes back saying that they are missionaries in Africa, blah, blah blah I can just ignore it, or, I can "bait" the scammer, as we do on Scamwarners sister site: http://www.419Eater.com

I recommend that you contact a legit agency that handles rentals in this area.

Good luck with finding something!

Thanks for your advice, Hellen. I've tried to look at some rental agency websites, but the price is too high for me (~2K/mo). I just want to have a temporary apt to stay for 3 month summer internship, and the only place that I can go to find a reasonable one is Craigslist (which is, again, full of scammers). I'll be more careful next time.
I've spent some time to read posts at 419eaters, really funny. I'll try to *bait* one if I have a chance

The percentage of rentals on all classified ad sites, including Craigslist and Gumtree, that are scams is phenomenal and would easily catch out the unwary. With a little extra effort it's not do hard to find alternatives. In the UK universities often offer accomodation during the summer holidays, and they're located in major cities. In France they have Gites which you book through a central organisation or why not book a few days with a major budget hote chain so that you can check out any rental offer in person.

Many scammers are pretty dumb but hide the major red flags until you've wasted lots of time you want to spend on arranging your trip, and that acts as a lever to push you into accepting unwise deals, even when they specify Western Union, say they can't show you round the apartment because they're away.

Wow i had the same experience with the same person but here in hawaii almost the same story a little different email but same address in oregon and same accident story... im glad i read this without going through with the payment process Thank you!

Welcome Jelika4 ,

Unfortunately, most advertising sites have more scams than real offers these days. If you are searching for a rental, and you receive more obvious scams, please consider posting them here to help others.

If you receive any future offers that you are unsure of, please feel free to stop back here and ask.