Room for Rent and other rental scams
by Michelle Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:56 am
*****
From: [email protected]
To: Michelle Banks
Subject: RE: Reply to your ad: A Fantastic and Lovely furnished Double bedroom flat located in Exeter city center.
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:10:39 +0000

Thanks for the reply and the sincere interest you have in my flat.My flat is fully furnished in and out as you can see in the picture and there is a garage and a off street parking in my flat,I spoke with my lawyer some couple of minute ago concerning the interest you have in my flat and we both agreed to have you in my flat.

However,it is unfortunate that my past bitter experience of inviting people to come and view my flat without any form of confirmation of their financial ability and not keeping up to time as at when scheduled, has brought about great loss to me. I have traveled all the way from Ireland to take some interested candidates round my flat because that's where i work with (P. Elliott & Company).

Some outside tenants do not have the money to pay the rent and yet they disturb the the landlord to arrange a viewing with their friend or relative who are in Exeter,also some do not meet up with the appointments which has led to the dismissal of some landlords in office by there employees.

Henceforth my lawyer and i have decided to carry out a simple test on financial ability to pay for my rent before coming for viewing or before making a reservation for any interested candidate. I would not ask you to send your bank statement neither your pay slip because it will be inappropriate for me to collect any money from you neither my lawyer. At least 1 month rent and security deposit which is £ 500 which is refundable after your first week stay in my flat, would be required from you to transfer through the Western union post office. You can make the transfer with your name as a sender name and your partner or friend in UK premises as a receiver.

Once you have done this, scan the receipt to me and if you do not have scanner, you may write out the details on the receipt as i will send it to my lawyer to verify if it's truly genuine and available in your friend's custody, after verification, then we can proceed for the viewing.

Note that the transfer must be confirmed valid before the receiver picks up the money and also, i will refund back to you the cost of transfer when we meet.


I look forward to reading from you soon.

Regards
Mr/Mrs Kelvin
+447024093708


The thief will tell you that you can rent his accommodation only if you can prove that you have genuine interest. He will ask you send money by wire transfer (normally Western Union) to yourself or a member of the family to show that you have sufficient finances and that you are not a "time waster".

Another variation of this scam is that you need to send (by Western Union) money in order that the keys and other documents can be couriered to you

He will ask you to send him the transfer details.

Make no mistake ! Western Union Transfers can be picked up virtually anywhere in the world and with the minimum of identification. They are almost impossible to trace once the money has been collected. You will never get to see the accommodation or your money again.

If you are reading this because you are looking for property to rent, and you are in contact with this thief you are probably searching Gumtree or similar listing sites. If you receive any requests from 'Landlords' asking for some kind of payment by Western Union before viewing, then it will also be a scam. Please forward the mail to me at the address in my signature line and I will investigate and list them if necessary.
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by bingersuk Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:02 pm
Hi I have recently been in contact with this said person. I contacted them through Gumtree the have 2 property flats to let in york under two different emails [email protected] and [email protected] I have the e-mails if you are interested in me posting them. Who can I contact about this?

The old saying you cant kid a kidda! Nothing gets past me... should be Locked up Scum Bags
by Con Warner Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:52 pm
Hi bingersuk. :)
We are always interested. If you don't wish to post them here, one of the team will take them. See our email addresses in the sig line at the bottom of our posts.

Email: [email protected]

Latest updates regarding Internet Fraud: http://www.antifraudnews.com
by catsonfire Thu Jul 07, 2011 10:40 am
Just to add a bit more detail:

This person uses the phone number 447086463727 ( 07086463727 ) and seems to use the alternate email address [email protected]
by Bubbles Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:24 am
Welcome to ScamWarners catsonfire and thank you for the phone number. As you may know the 4470 number is a redirect number so the scammer can appear to be in the UK while being any other place in the world.

Bubbles, former Scamwarners moderator.

Rest in Peace 24 June 2015.

Gone, but never forgotten.
by Michelle Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:29 pm
Confirmation of new telephone number :-

From: "stella kelvin" <[email protected]>
Date: 13 Jul 2011 09:28
Subject: RE: Reply to your ad: 2 bedroom house/flat/bungalow/maisonette URGENTLY needed
To: Michelle Banks

Thanks for the reply and the sincere interest you have in my flat.My flat is fully furnished in and out as you can see in the picture and there is a garage and a off street parking in my flat,I spoke with my lawyer some couple of minute ago concerning the interest you have in my flat and we both agreed to have you in my flat.

However,it is unfortunate that my past bitter experience of inviting people to come and view my flat without any form of confirmation of their financial ability and not keeping up to time as at when scheduled, has brought about great loss to me. I have traveled all the way from Ireland to take some interested candidates round my house because that's where i work with (P. Elliott & Company).

Some outside tenants do not have the money to pay the rent and yet they disturb the the landlord to arrange a viewing with their friend or relative who are in Miltonkeynes,also some do not meet up with the appointments which has led to the dismissal of some landlords in office by there employees.

Henceforth my lawyer and i have decided to carry out a simple test on financial ability to send the deposit and at list a month rent to a friend before coming for viewing or before making a reservation for any interested candidate. I would not ask you to send your bank statement neither your pay slip because it will be inappropriate for me to collect any money from you neither my lawyer. At least 1 month rent and security deposit which is £ 500 which is refundable after your first week stay in my flat, would be required from you to transfer through the Money gram post office. You can make the transfer with your name as a sender name and your partner or friend in UK premises as a receiver.

Once you have done this, scan the receipt to me and if you do not have scanner, you may write out the details on the receipt as i will send it to my lawyer to verify if it's truly genuine and available in your friend's custody, after verification, then we can proceed for the viewing.

Note that the transfer must be confirmed valid before the receiver picks up the money and also, i will refund back to you the cost of transfer when we meet.


I look forward to reading from you soon.

Regards
Mr/Mrs Kelvin
+447086463727
by Agi Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:46 am
Oh, how good I found you !

Almost send her 800!

On Gumtree she is [email protected] then after first email she is sending from stella kelvin...

Thank you for sharing all information !

Thank you

Agi
by regante Sat Jul 30, 2011 2:58 pm
hey there as regards to this topic i to nearly got had but we asterixed the reference number is there any way he can get round that because we nearly or have fell for it any advice please :S i have also given my landlord notice an gonna be made homeless because of this scammin ************** so many names i wanna call him an want to kill him is there something that can be done about this ??? anywhere to report him etc?
by regante Sat Jul 30, 2011 3:00 pm
Thanks for the interest you have in my flat.My flat is located at Bayly Road, Dartford DA1 1UZ .My flat is still available for rent and you can stay in my flat as long as you pay your rent at when due. Here are the necessary things you need to know about the rent and deposit.

Rent £400pcm : £ 100.00 pw all bills inclusive.
Security Deposit: £ 500.00 (Returnable at the end of a week stay in my flat)
Utility bills inclusive ( water, gas, council tax, TV license and wireless Internet) Utility Cost : £ 0.00 pcm.

However, At this stage that you want to rent my flat, i need to know some few question about you.Can you keep my flat clean and tidy? Do you have references in London?. Kindly reply for further information and i will like to know where you are coming from to stay in my flat.

I look forward to reading from you. Have a wonderful week ahead of you.

Regards
Mr/Mrs Kelvin

here is the one i received
by GC_TN Mon Aug 29, 2011 7:43 pm
I posted an ad on Gumtree a few days ago and all the replies have gotten are scammers! I only realised this after a lengthy conversation with one about how serious I was about his house.

He emailed asking me to transfer £800 to a friend using western union, luckily I was born paranoid and my first thought was I'm not transferring money to anybody! I had only mentioned viewing his house. I emailed him back saying I though he was been a bit unreasonable and to go to an estate agent in future and to let them do all the credit checking for him.
I was then bombarded about how he was a God fearing man and would never request money from somebody without signing contracts etc...
I then googled 'gumtree scam' and found loads of websites listing other peoples experiences.

I don't have the conversation however, I quickly deleted them after I realised what was going on, I still have his initial email though:

Hi there, you have received a reply to your Gumtree posting "Couple want 2 bed house to rent in Pontefract area up to £450 pcm, garden essential!" (ad# 86765009) from Richard S. <[email protected]>:

Hello,
I have an accommodation that suit your requirement. Kindly reply for further information.
Regards
Mr & Mrs Smith
[email protected]

I have also received an email from Stella Kelvin (how I found this site) and two others that I believe were now scammers, they contacted me with places that were stupidly cheap, they also both offered properties in the wrong area (it helps if they read the ad first, my location and the place that I want to rent in are completely different but they obviously didn't bother to read it)

RE: Reply to your ad: Couple want 2 bed house to rent in Pontefract area up to £450 pcm, garden essential!?

From: stella kelvin ([email protected])
Sent: 29 August 2011 20:54:33
To: <Removed - Michelle>
Thanks for the interest you have in my flat.My flat is located at Park Rd Pontefract, Wakefield WF8, UK.My flat is still available for rent and you can stay in my flat as long as you pay your rent at when due. Here are the necessary things you need to know about the rent and deposit.

Rent £400 pcm : £ 100.00 pw
Security Deposit: £ 500.00 (Returnable at the end of a week stay in my flat)
Utility bills inclusive ( water, gas, council tax, TV license and wireless Internet) Utility Cost : £ 0.00 pcm.

However, At this stage that you want to rent my flat, i need to know some few question about you.Can you keep my flat clean and tidy? Do you have references in Pontefract?. Kindly reply for further information and i will like to know where you are coming from to stay in my flat.

I look forward to reading from you. Have a wonderful week ahead of you.

Regards
Mr/Mrs Kelvin

This has been a real eye opening experience! Going through an estate agent really isn't that bad an option!
by Smerc101 Wed Mar 13, 2013 10:03 am
She/He goes by a different email address now - I too saw this flat as a pet friendly rental in London she then proceeded to try and pressure me into a commitment without answering any of my questions

[email protected]

Thanks for the interest you have in my flat.My flat is located at Paramount Court, University St, Camden, London WC1E 6JP, UK.My flat is still available for rent and you can stay in my flat as long as you pay your rent at when due. Here are the necessary things you need to know about the rent and deposit.

Rent £400 pcm : £ 100.00 pw
Security Deposit: £ 500.00 (Returnable at the end of a week stay in my flat)
Utility bills inclusive ( water, gas, council tax, TV license and wireless Internet) Utility Cost : £ 0.00 pcm.

However, At this stage that you want to rent my flat, i need to know some few question about you.Can you keep my flat clean and tidy? Do you have references in London?. Kindly reply for further information and i will like to know where you are coming from to stay in my flat.

I look forward to reading from you. Have a wonderful week ahead of you.

Regards
Mr/Mrs Kelvin


After asking questions this followed:

Thanks for the swift reply.You can stay in my flat as long as you want.My flat is still available for rent.I am willing to have you in my flat as long as you want after the viewing. It is unfortunate that my past experience of inviting people to come and view or reserve my flat without any form of confirmation of their seriousness and not keeping up to time as at when scheduled, has brought about great loss to me. I have traveled all the way from Coventry to take some interested candidates round my flat because that's where i work.Some outside tenants do not have the money to pay the rent and yet they disturb the landlord to arrange a viewing with their friend or relative who lives close by, also some do not meet up with the appointments.

Henceforth, my solicitor and i have decided to carry out a simple test on seriousness and financial ability to pay for the rent before coming for viewing. I am not asking you to pay before the viewing but at least, one month rent together with the security deposit of £ 500 which is refundable would be required from you to transfer to someone close to you through Western Union Money Transfer agent using your name as the Sender and your friend or family member's name as the Receiver in the UK premises.Once you have done this, scan the receipt to me and if you do not have scanner, you may write out the details on the receipt as i will forward it to my solicitor to verify if it's truly genuine and available, after verification, i will ask you to inform the receiver to go and pick up the transfer and i will refund the transfer charges immediately after the viewing.

Kindly let me know if my explanation is well understood. Have a wonderful time.I 'll like you to know that,if you can get the transfer done today so that we can proceed with the viewing latest around 5pm in the evening or at your own convenience.

Best Regards
Mr/Mrs Kelvin


And then even when I said no this followed:

Thanks for getting back to me. I wouldn't want you to get me wrong and am not asking you to pay before the viewing, the idea of making a confirmation of your financial ability is not only my idea, my lawyer and i decided to use that process and i can't violate my lawyer procedure. I am a God fearing woman and i am not after your money. I have my own work and i earn enough money for my family and also to help the less privileged.

However, i didn't want to collect any money from you as long as you have not sign a contract neither have i taken you round my flat. All what i request of you is to transfer the deposit to someone close to you through Western union, once you've done that, you get back to me with a scan copy of the transfer receipt so that i can forward it to my lawyer to confirm if the transfer is valid.

After the confirmation might have been made by my lawyer, i will ask you to tell you friend to pick up the money and schedule a convenient day for the viewing. If eventually you don't want to proceed with the rent, i promise to return the cost of the transfer without any deduction.Western union is the fast and easiest way to send money.

Kindly let me know your opinion in time in other to avoid time wasting.

Regards
Mr/Mrs Kelvin


All from this email address, I have told the person they are a scammer and not to contact me again
Last edited by Bubbles on Thu Mar 14, 2013 12:49 am, edited 1 time in total. Reason: Quotations added for clarity.
by Galliano Sun May 05, 2013 2:05 pm
I requested details about a flat to rent and this idiot replied with her terrible English. Anyway I proceeded to string her along for a couple of days building up her hopes and asking lots of questions by email, then today I finally just said "hahaha, I know you're a scammer, I've just been f***ing with you" and she went ape shit! it was sooo funny! now I'm using mailbait to flood her email addresses with hundreds of emails just to make her life even harder. I've also traced her email addresses back to her ip and I'm thinking of what to do next! 'loic' comes to mind; but I need more people for that.

Anyway thought I'd entertain you guys with my little story and let you know that I'm trying my best to make her life a pain!

Have a good day! :D

PS. I'm noting all the email addresses here as well and will add them to my list of ones to mess with.
by Galliano Sun May 05, 2013 3:48 pm
I missed the phone number posted above! I'm now randomly sending calls using

http://www.prankdial.com/listen/1011699893

It's pretty perfect for this scammer as they are asking about a room for rent. If she responds I'll record the call and post a link for you all to laugh at her and cheer yourselves up a bit. :D

Regarding my previous post, I've now sent them 25,000 emails and counting, I'm sure that must be annoying them a bit ;)
by Michelle Mon May 06, 2013 6:58 am
Hello Galliano - Its sounds like you enjoy 'scambaiting' - This is a Scam Warning site -- You might be interested in visiting the forums our sister site - 419eater.com - where you will meet hundreds of other like minded people.

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