Flat for rent scammer - [email protected]

Hello,

I am a first time flat renter and have been looking for flats to rent in Birmingham. I saw a really nice one online (on vivastreet.co.uk) which seemed below asking price for rent per month and the pictures looked beautiful. I then contacted the person with my interest who gave their name as 'Remy Benitos' ( [email protected] ) and this was the email I got:

Re: Flat Details Request

Hello,
My name is Jeremy Benitos and I am from Spain and the flat is still available for rent. I had an aunt in UK and after her death she left me her apartment from UK a few years ago.

The flat was redecorated last year and the flat is looking very nice and clean. The property has a fully furnished kitchen,clean and well tidy sitting rooms,laundry room,and fully furnished with home utilities like: electric shower, Lounge,Vacuum Cleaner,Toaster, Owen and microwave, dryer, iron, washing machine , refrigerator , dishwasher, power shower, heater, cable ready,TV set and DVD player,Internet connection, equipped kitchen and everything a house needs. I m interested in finding someone clean who can take care of this house more then getting money from renting it if you know what I mean.

Till last month the apartment was rented by some students from Germany and now they left and the apartment is available again for rent. The price I want is £490 per month,bills included and I am intrested in a long term agreement,minimum 6 month!
If you are decided to view the flat and have the money I could come in the next few days to show you the apartment and maybe sign the tenancy agreement if you like my flat(I am sure you will love it) but first I have to be sure you really do need a place to live because two weeks ago a person from Birmingham told me he is really interested and he asked me to go to Birmingham to meet him and sign the tenancy agreement and when I arrived there no person showed up to rent my place and I lost time and money for nothing. Please accept my apologises if I am rude but I hope you will understand me!


I will wait for your e-mail


This email made me suspicious so i googled to see if I could find any similar flat scams and it led me to this site where I saw word-for-word copies of this email! Thank goodness I found this as I was actually contemplating meeting him.

Hello lululabelle

Just like you, I have seen these words many times before.

I don't think that you would have ever got to meet your new landlord as he would have quite likely been writing to you from West Africa

He will have wanted you to send him money for a deposit or to prove that you have genuine interest in the property. He would have asked you send money by wire transfer (normally Western Union).

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 may find this BBC news report and video of interest.... it's shows how a similar Room for Rent scam works..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/art ... ture.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7648771.stm

From: Jeremy Benitos <[email protected]>
Subject:
To: Michelle
Date:

Hello again,
The price is 490pounds,bills included for the whole flat and one parking place! I am intrested in finding a responsable tenant who could take care of the flat more than getting money from rent! We could meet and maybe sign the tenancy agreement Saturday but you see these is due to previous predicament that I have gone through in the past trying to rent the property to some students,I have got to realize so many people are not really in need of an apartment all they do is secure a place in advance, My last experience in trying to rent the property to a particular lady had got me to predicate on these,she made me believe she was willing and ready to get the apartment she even went to the extend of showing me her statement of account,which made me took her for the viewing but after taking her for the viewing,she saw the apartment and got to love it and never wanted to loose it,so she kept pleading i retain it for her because she is not financially composed at the moment,which i did but end up disastrously.

So basically for me to be sure of you been willing and ready to get the apartment I will employ you walk into any Money Gram outlet and send the total bill cash £1470(two months rent and one month refundable deposit) to your partener`s name(NOT to ME),or your partener should send it to you with location of Birmingham,All I need is for you to get back to me with the receipt issued to you after making the transaction so I can confirm it! When we will meet in person to sign the papers we will go together to Money Gram and you or your partner will withdraw the cash and pay me in hand or you can pay me on Monday by bank transfer! I just need to see that you do have the money available and you do have serious intentions in renting the flat! If the Money Gram agent will ask you about the receiver you should tell him that is your cousin because the transfer fees will be cheaper! Anyway I will pay for it either you take the flat or not! I will book the flight for Saturday as soon as I have your positive answer because I can come only in weekends!
I do apologise for that but as I told you last time when I arrived to Birmingham to show the flat to a person everything was a stupid joke and I hope you understand me because I don`t want to waste my time and money on plane tickets..

Regards

Hi, the same guy tried to scam me too!! Hes been going under lots of different names it appears and in lots of different locations.

He was using the name Miguel Jose Suarez

He was trying to get me to transfer money via MoneyGram into a "friend/Partners" account and then send him a close up copy of the reciept!

But i said i was not happy to do this as it seemed strange and he would not just accept that i had the money for the flat.

Iv been looking through a number oif these posts now and all of the emails hes sent are virtually the same!!

What a horrible man!! I even told him that i am expecting a baby soon and the flat looked great an excellent value as i am short of cash!! He was willing to rip me off what a heartless bastard!!

Unbelievable - I really looked forward to moving into that flat He hasn't asked me for the money gram yet but I am sure that will be his next e-mail....luckily I put his name into google and saw all of your comments!!! I bet this guy gets money of loads of people!!! But how can I stop him - oter than report him on this site?

Below are the first two e-mails of him.


Hello,
My name is Miguel Jose Suarez and I am from Spain and the flat is still available for rent. I had an aunt in UK and after her death she left me her apartment from UK a few years ago.
The flat was redecorated last year and the flat is looking very nice and clean. The property has a fully furnished kitchen,clean and well tidy sitting rooms,laundry room,and fully furnished with home utilities like: electric shower, Lounge,Vacuum Cleaner,Toaster, Owen and microwave, dryer, iron, washing machine , refrigerator , dishwasher, power shower, heater, cable ready,TV set and DVD player,Internet connection, equipped kitchen and everything a house needs. I m interested in finding someone clean who can take care of this house more then getting money from renting it if you know what I mean.
Till last month the apartment was rented by some students from Germany and now they left and the apartment is available again for rent. The price I want is £440 per month,bills included and I am intrested in a long term agreement,minimum 6 month!
If you are decided to view the flat and have the money I could come in the next few days to show you the apartment and maybe sign the tenancy agreement if you like my flat(I am sure you will love it) but first I have to be sure you really do need a place to live because two weeks ago a person from Cardiff told me he is really interested and he asked me to go to Cardiff to meet him and sign the tenancy agreement and when I arrived there no person showed up to rent my place and I lost time and money for nothing. Please accept my apologises if I am rude but I hope you will understand me!

I will wait for your e-mail,Miguel Jose Suarez



Hello,
I will attach some pictures of the flat,floor plan and also a model of the rental contract! The flat is located on 119, Romilly Road, CARDIFF, CF5 1FN but I can`t give you the exactly address because there`s no one living out there and I`m afraid of thief's and I do apologies for this but I hope you understand me because I`m in Spain right now! The property benefits from access to beautifully maintained communal gardens and comprises reception room, kitchen with washing machine/tumble dryer, master bedroom with fitted wardrobes and en suite bathroom, second bedroom with fitted wardrobe and bathroom.
In the kitchen there is a dishwasher and also a Big fridge freezer! Regarding the council tax I can tell you that it is included in the price of £440 per month and also Sky TV,internet broadband,gas and electricity are also included in this price! I am intrested in a minimum six month agreement and I request two months advance rent payment plus one month refundable deposit (£440) wich you will get it back at the end of the contract.
Regarding the plummings and all that kind of stuff I can tell you that the flat was recently renovated and all electrical part and plummets are new so that won`t be necessary any repairs anyway I have a person who can manage this starting from September .
We can sign the rental contract starting from next weekend but I need to be sure that you have serious intentions in renting the flat that`s why I attach here a model of the rental contract and also we can discuss the terms when we will meet!
If you are decided to view the flat let me know because there is another person interested in reserving it!
Kind regards