apartment scam Utrecht

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum and I want to share a story with you because I almost fell for a scam. I was looking for a student apartment in Utrecht (the Netherlands) and spotted a cheap and spacious apartment in the city center.

A certain 'John Govas' was glad I was interested and provided me some extra info on the apartment and included some nice pictures. He indicated he was in Manchester now for his work and would need to send the keys and contract by express mail. He suggested using a TNT service where I would be able to get the key after sending 800 euros to a local TNT agent. I would have 2 days to check out the apartment and then decide if I wanted the TNT agent to return the money and send back the key or keep the key and transfer the money to John Govas.

Surprisingly, since I consider myself a rational and cautious skeptic, my greed blinded me and only at the local Western Union office I got my doubts, returned home, and googled Western union scams. I'm glad I did!

Here's a selection from the emails he sent me:

-----------

John Govas to me:

Thank you for your interest.As you can see I have available the apartment located in Oudkerkhof, Utrecht 3512AK, Netherlands.It has 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen and 1 living room.Because I moved with my job in United Kingdom, Manchester and I need money to pay the rent here. This is the main reason I want to rent at this price and also to find a good person for my apartment.I can rent you the apt for max. 5 years because I have a contract here for this period. I `m the owner of the apt and its like in the pics. The rent for 1 month is 400 Euro, but you must to deposit 800 euro/2months (for the whole apartment) including all utilities (water, electricity, Internet, cable, garbage disposal, microwave, refrigerator). You can move in the apt in the same day when you receive the keys. The only problem is that I `m the only person who have the keys but I hope that we will find a compromise.
Thank you for your interest and I will look forward to hearing from you soon.
Good luck,

---------------

Hi again,

Thank you for your reply but the matter is that I'm in Manchester already. Like I have inform you before, the price you shall pay for 2 month of rent will be 800 euros , with no extra taxes to pay. The money, I want to revive it monthly to my bank account, so I hope it will be no problem for you to wire the money to my bank account. The apartment is ready for you, you will need only to receive the keys and the contract to check it, and see if you like it.
Obviously we need a way to complete this deal, that will allow us to make sure we receive what we are after. In order of that I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and in this way you will receive the Keys in less than 2 days, if you move fast as well. The solution is provided by a company called TNT which is similar to FedEx, DHL or UPS, which will handle both payment and delivery of the Keys.
I have found a procedure that will allow you to pay for the rent of the apt only after you will receive the keys of it and through this way you will see it and decide if you will stay in the apt or not before I receive my payment. Please click on the link bellow to the TNT website to see how we can complete the deal safely and fast directly from the website of the
company where the procedure is explained: http://www.tnt.com/express/en_gb/site/h ... ivery.html
Let me know if you are interested please because I really need to take care of this matter.

PS: This is the pictures of the apartment

http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/2737/20457366.jpg
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8463/53590804.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7208/80015849.jpg

--------------

I want to inform you that TNT will hold the money until you will confirm to them that you like the apt and keep the keys. If you don't like it, you only have to return the keys to them after they will refund the money to you and they will deliver the keys back to me on my expense.
I will need to inform you the steps about how this service works and how we can make it happen. You will only have to deposit to TNT Service for 2 month of rent 800 euro so they can proceed with the shipping, and you can receive the keys and the contract.
Like I said, I will pay for a 2 days delivery so you will receive the Keys and the contract signed by me right away. I will explain to you step by step how this will work:
To start this transaction i will need to know your full shipping information, full name, full shipping address to proceed with this deal .
I go to the TNT Office and leave the Keys and the contract in your name as the intended receiver.
TNT will check the envelope to see if everything is OK with it and also the legal papers that will come along with the Keys.
TNT will send you a delivery notification to let you know they have the Keys and the papers in their custody, in which you will be told that they have the Keys and that they checked it.
At this point you will have to go to a WesternUnion Agent Location and make a money transfer deposit on the TNT agent name assigned with this transaction for the amount we agreed, the total amount you shall deposit is for two months of rent.
After you make the deposit you will have to send the infos about the money deposit to TNT (Reference Number, sender's name and address)
TNT will verify the payment informations and if everything is in order they will deliver the Keys and the contract to you .
After you receive the package, You will go and check the apt and in 2 days you must contact them and tell them if you keep the apt or not, if everything is in order you will instruct TNT to release the funds to me.
If you don't like the apt they will send your money back and you will send them the keys and the contract to them to return the package back to me on my expense.

I will pay TNT Service for the shipping and you will pay WesternUnion for the Money Transfer fees.

Now i must know for sure if you agree because here are a lot of peoples interested to have this apartment rented and i want to know for sure what i must tell them. If you agree what i suggested i will tell them that my apartment is already rented and i will keep it for you. If you agree then i must have all the shipping details so i will be able to make all the arrangements for the TNT delivery.

Thank you for your interest and wait news from you.
------------

And then I got a message from 'TNT Delivery' ([email protected]), complete with TNT logo.

--------------------------

Welcome to TNT Global Air Express
Our company is the WORLD market leader in Global Air Express and international mail services.



04.08.2009
Third Party Service reduces risks associated with Internet transactions by acting as a licensed neutral third party for online transactions. The seller delivers the package to one of nearest TNT Global Air Express agents for the evaluation of contents. The package will remain in the company custody until the receiver will send the payment through a Money Order Service (WesternUnion Service). After verifying the funds, TNT Global Air Express is ready to ship the parcel to the designated address.

NOTE: We order to avoid the earlier pick up of the funds by the shipper based on fact that he is aware of the sent payment - we are thanking you for choosing our third party service for your transactions - which will be revealed to the shipper along with all the transaction details after the delivery and your clearance. Consider this security measure if you haven't bought from the seller before and you believe that this is in your best interest.

Address Information:

Ship To:

[my info]

Shipper:

First name
John
Last name
Govas
Address
PO Box 27
City/State
Manchester
PostalCode
M60 1SJ
Country

United Kingdom




Shipment Information:
Service
TNT Global Air Express
Delivered By
2 days



Description of goods
Apartment Keys and rental contract verified signed by the Sender. Owner of the apartment in: Oudkerkhof / Utrecht / 3512 AK / Netherlands. All the papers are double checked.
Declared Value
800.00 EUR
Shipping Costs

0.00 EUR

NOTE: You will receive the Tracking Number after the payment is confirmed to us.

Package Information:

Apartment Keys and rental contract verified signed by the Sender. Owner of the apartment in: Oudkerkhof / Utrecht / 3512 AK / Netherlands. All the papers are double checked.

Insured Value Amount: 800.00 EUR



Payment Information:

Important!
Payment information: (How to pay)
Locate the nearest WesternUnion Office nearest you : (available here)
Make the payment using money transfer to our TNT Agent name listed below and send the total amount of : 800.00 EUR

First name
Thomas
Last name
Elferis
Address
194 Chapel Street
City/State
Manchester
PostalCode
M3 6BY
Country

United Kingdom

Pay for the transfer with cash at a local WesternUnion agent.
Once you sent payment, please email us the following information`s:

* 10 digit, MTCN number
* Sender's, full name and address
* Receiver's full name
* The total amount you've sent
Once you sent payment, please email us the payment details. ( [email protected] )



Warning!!! The payment must be made using WesternUnion . We will not confirm any payments made online. The payment must be made at one of WesternUnion Agent Locations, in person by the Buyer.

Intellectual and other property rights to the information contained in this site are hold by TNT Global Air Express B.V. with all rights reserved © 2009
--------------------

I called TNT and they confirmed the email and the service itself was bogus.

Hope this was helpful to anyone.

Best,

PewPew

You weren't greedy. You just didn't know that the internet is full of scum that makes doing business a nightmare for honest people. Use the term 'honest' to describe yourself. Only a scammer would call you greedy, in an effort to justify his own dishonesty.

Western Union is a method to pay money to an individual and TNT would never allow a payment to be sent to an individual officer of their company. Undoubtedlt the money would be picked up by the scammer in whatever part of the world he is located, probably Nigeria.

Believe me, you have lots to congratulate yourself on, not having lost money. You may feel down having lost the flat but consider how bad you'd feel if you had lost the money too.

Two red flags are - payment by Western Union and if you are given a number starting 044 70 (which would be a UK number redirected to somewhere else that the person is trying to hide).

Hi PewPew, Welcome to Scamwarners and thank you for posting the information. Good for you for spotting the scam and checking into it before you sent the money. Thank you for reporting the information, it just might help somebody else from becoming a victim of the same scam.

It looks like the scammer is using the name and logo of a legitimate site http://www.tnt.com to support its scam. However, the email address used [email protected] does not originate from the real tnt.com site but from a fake site that was just recently registered.

Here is the Whois information from the fake site:

canonical name confirmation-tnt.com.
addresses 216.39.57.104
Domain Whois record
Queried whois.internic.net with "dom confirmation-tnt.com"...
Domain Name: CONFIRMATION-TNT.COM
Registrar: MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
Whois Server: whois.melbourneit.com
Referral URL: http://www.melbourneit.com
Name Server: YNS1.YAHOO.COM
Name Server: YNS2.YAHOO.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 27-jul-2009
Creation Date: 27-jul-2009
Expiration Date: 27-jul-2010

Queried whois.melbourneit.com with "confirmation-tnt.com"...
Domain Name.......... confirmation-tnt.com
Creation Date........ 2009-07-28
Registration Date.... 2009-07-28
Expiry Date.......... 2010-07-28
Organisation Name.... Shweta Pahouja
Organisation Address. PO Box 61359
Organisation Address. Sunnyvale
Organisation Address. 94088
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. US

Admin Name........... Admin PrivateRegContact
Admin Email.......... [email protected]
Admin Phone.......... +1.5105952002
Tech Name............ TECH PrivateRegContact
Tech Email........... [email protected]
Name Server.......... yns1.yahoo.com
Name Server.......... yns2.yahoo.com

Network Whois record
Queried whois.arin.net with "216.39.57.104"...
OrgName: AltaVista Company
OrgID: ALTAVI-1
Address: 701 First Ave
City: Sunnyvale
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94089
Country: US

NetRange: 216.39.48.0 - 216.39.63.255
CIDR: 216.39.48.0/20
NetName: NETBLK-INTERNET-BLK-1-AV
NetHandle: NET-216-39-48-0-1
Parent: NET-216-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS1.YAHOO.COM
NameServer: NS2.YAHOO.COM
NameServer: NS3.YAHOO.COM
NameServer: NS4.YAHOO.COM
NameServer: NS5.YAHOO.COM
RegDate: 2002-09-09
Updated: 2004-05-26
OrgAbuseHandle: NETWO857-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Network Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-408-349-3300
OrgAbuseEmail: [email protected]
OrgTechHandle: NA258-ARIN
OrgTechName: Netblock Admin
OrgTechPhone: +1-408-349-3300
OrgTechEmail: [email protected]

I will pass the information on the fake site over to our site killers.

Would you please post up some additional information: What is the email address that "John Govas" is using? Please post the full header from one of his emails so we can check the IP address. He is probably not in the UK. With the MTCN number, amount and senders/receivers information, the money sent via Western Union can be picked up anywhere in the world. Make sure you delete out your own email address and name when posting the emails and/or headers.

How did you first come into contact with this scammer? Did you reply to an advertisement? Where was the advertisement was it on Craigslist or another site?

Thank you for your replies. I ran into this scammer at www.kamertje.nl, but some googling revealed that he also had the same advert for the apartment in Utrecht on other Dutch student housing sites such as www.kamerplanet.nl and www.zoekallekamers.nl, but they all linked to kamertje.nl. Yesterday, the advertisement was no longer accessible, but now it's up again, though with the notice that the apartment is no longer for rent (http://www.kamertje.nl/kamers/28197/utrecht).

After submitting a reaction via kamertje.nl, the scammer emailed me with the following email address: [email protected], assuming the alias John Govas. He cleverly used gmail so he could easily hide his IP. I checked the headers and no 'received from' IP is mentioned. Here's the (edited) header text from one of the emails:

Delivered-To: [my email]
Received: by [my IP and info];
Sun, 2 Aug 2009 08:53:17 -0700 (PDT)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by [again my IP and SMTP]; Sun,
02 Aug 2009 08:53:15 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2009 18:53:15 +0300
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Subject: Apartment
From: John Govas <[email protected]>
To: [my email address]
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=000e0cd15640c2765804702aa658

--000e0cd15640c2765804702aa658
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Thank you for your help!

Thanks for posting the additional information. It might help prevent another person from becoming a victim of this scam.

This guy hasn't singled you out PewPew. These scammers are infesting sites advertising property for rent and also answering ads themselves on an industrial scale.

The fact that you spotted it before you paid probably puts you in an elite category. If you know friends or colleagues who may fall for the same scam please warn them.

Hello all!
Just a little more information on this sort of scam - but from Denmark...
My daughter is looking for an apartment and found an offer in a local ad paper in the Copenhagen area. The offer looked to good to be true, and I was kind of sceptic... The scam was exactly as described in the Utrecht case; using TNT Express and Western Union.
The scammer in this case was named Julie Zingenberg - apparently a laywer posted in London on very short notice.
Can I provide further information to help stop these sort of scam?

Hi and welcome to Scamwarners. And well done spotting it as a scam. Post the details by all means, but in a new topic please.
It may stop someone else falling for it.

Hi, my daughter (stil) is looking for a student room in Rotterdam and we also encountered the advertisement of Mr. John Govas on kamertje.nl. We both thought the advertisement was too good to be true, but you never know. So my daughter and I decided to try to find out wether it was reliable or not by emailing with this person. I told my daugther as long as you don't pay there's no worry. In her last email she told him that she did not trust him and that was the end.
As in the above messages he also sent the link to the 'tnt' page and the story of allready working in Manchester etc...
A question I have is can we report this to the police so that there can be put an end to this persons activities?

Hi Woldina and welcome to Scamwarners.

Firstly, well done on realising it is a scam before losing any money.

Now to your question;

Scammers operate using fake names, stolen identification and stolen pictures, they operate from internet cafes in countries outside your police's jurisdiction where their own police turn a blind eye for bribes and favours.

The chance of an arrest is very remote, the best we can do is to slow them down by warning potential victims, educating the public and providing details of their scams in the hope that people will find them as you did before losing any money.

If you would like to help our cause you can quite simply by telling your family and friends about your experience and talk to them about us and scammers.

I know it doesn't sound like much but you may be surprised at how many people can be saved by these methods alone

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask

Hi, my girlfriend is looking for an apartment in Copenhagen, and was nearly scammed.
The guy gave lots of personal info., i.e, his daughter is pregnant and has moved back to Manchester, but wants to rent the apartment in Copenhagen.
The guy was using DHL as his preferred scamming method, telling us that he will send the keys via DHL, and she has to pay a deposit for them, which will be refunded by DHL on return (DHL offer no such service).
He sent a copy of a British Passport - the number for which has been used for previous scams: 027282397, it looks relatively genuine, although the lettering and number appears to be on a slant.
He could not show us around the apartment as he is in the UK.
DO NOT SEND MONEY UNLESS YOU CAN VISIT THE PROPERTY AND ENTER IT!!
This apartment was actually a school/preschool, thus not actually being an apartment building.
The name they were using was Peter Bernet, although in some mails, used the name Bernet Peter, and use of the English Language was quite poor.
Hope this helps other people to avoid such scams!!

Hi Manuphil

Welcome to Scamwarners

Thank you for posting this information, it will help prevent others from being scammed.

Could you please include any emails from teh scammers complete with email address and phone numbers if you have them, the more you can post the more likely it will be that your information will save somebody else.

Please be sure to remove your own information however as it is not a good idea to give scammers any idea of who has reported their scam.

Scammers often make threats, when they do, its not such a nice feeling when they actually can find you

If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to ask

As i live in Holland.. ... To search for student homes ..you search dutch sites with providers for rental Homes

\http://www.directwonen.nl/zoek/zoekresultaten-lijst.aspx?setlocaleid=1033&cityname=Utrecht&Banner=Google_dw&ca=654&kw=j08&gclid=COqE8eHYt50CFVKF3godKEkZiQ

search dutch sites... local bussiness.... enjoy.... and i hope you find something nice.. Greetings Mike

While using any website to find products and services, extreme caution is needed, the site recommended here is no exception, even if it is clear of scammers now, the same may not be true tomorrow.

Please be careful, and ask if you have the slightest doubt

Here we are!

Same Peter Bernet (or "bernet peter"), same pregnant daughter, same Menchester base town and same british passport, with bad resolution but apparently genuine...

The only difference is he disappeared for a while, until today, exactly few minutes later than I have found this site and had some confirmations to my doubts! He told me right few minutes ago that he will go to DHL tomorrow and send me the keys...

The used email address is
bernet.peter @ hotmail.com

The apartment is definitly wonderful (5.000 DKK per month, more or less 540 EUROs; 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and leaving room...). I asked many times for the street number (the street name is Brydes Allè, there are some schools there, I can confirm it 'cause I biked there to have a kind of survey) and for a valid phone number, and for other details... but no answer received.

The announce is no more visible, but I found it in the DBA website ("Den Blå Avis", a local paper and electronic announce services, www.dba.dk).

I hope it will help, I didn't know anything about this kind of scams yet, it's amazing, there are just some strange details that made me stop... helped off course from himself disappearing!

Thank you for your service!

Dario - Copenhagen

PS: Last email received from IP 195.93.60.101 I gave a try to look for it and it's the same IP used for other hacks or bad operations. Try yourselves.