Rental Scammer - [email protected]

From: Leslie Andree <[email protected]>
Date: Sep , 2015
Subject: Re: Entire Apt W/ 3 Br In Youngberg Terrace Super Occasion!
To: Michelle Banks

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to look at my property.
My name is Leslie and I am a civil engineer, originally from the United Kingdom. I worked several years in Singapore. The only problem is that I had to move with my job back to the United Kingdom, London where I am now.
During my stay in SG I bought this apartment. I don't want to sell the apartment, so that's why I decided to rent it.
I am looking for a responsible person that can take a very good care of my apartment. I am not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the possible tenant will see the apartment as his or her own and I hope that you can send me some personal information about yourself. The apartment is fully furnished with all necessary amenities (exactly like in the pics). It has dishwasher, washing machine and clothes dryer. There are two parking spots, a storage unit where you can deposit my furniture (if you don't like it and you want to use your furniture) and AC. Pets allowed. Cooking allowed. This is not a shared rental.
The monthly rent for the entire apartment is SGD 1400 and also includes monthly utilities bill (electricity, water, heat, cable, gas, internet connection+wifi, parking), so there is nothing else to be paid on top of that. I am looking for someone to rent anywhere from 1 month to 5 years or more. Also the apartment is available immediately!
Sadly I do not have anyone there, so the property is being managed by Airbnb (no agency fees) and they will handle the whole rental process. If you want to know more about the rental process please get back to me and I will send you the step by step procedure.


Kind regards,
Leslie

September 2015, Leslie Andree <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,

I am glad that you are still interested in my apartment. As I already told you in my first email Airbnb will handle the renting process in my behalf. I will have to contact the rental agency and provide them all the necessary information so they can start the rental process. For that I will need your full name, current address, email and phone number.
You will receive a notification from the rental company containing all the instructions that you need to follow and the invoice as well. To secure the apartment you will be instructed to deposit 2 months (SGD 2800) rent to the agency. The keys, the rental agreement and the copy of the ownership of the apartment will be delivered by their agent at your current address same day the deposit is paid, or you can meet with the agent at the apartment when you arrive. You will be given a 5 days inspection period from the day you receive the keys and lease agreement. If you are satisfied with the apartment all you have to do is to sign the lease agreement and inform the agency. If you don't sign the tenancy agreement you receive a full refund of your deposit payment within the same day you made your decision. After you move in the apartment, the monthly payment will be sent directly to my bank account.
If you wish to proceed please provide the requested details and I will submit your application right away, and of course please make sure that you have the deposit payment ready.
In the beginning, the monthly rent was higher (SGD 2000) but I was asked to lower it. I still have people interested who tells me that they can't afford to pay the rent.
I look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you for your time and nice cooperation.


Best regards,
Leslie

This person asks for a deposit payment via Western Union, MoneyGram, pre-paid credit card or bank transfer with a promise that you can have the keys to a property that does not belong to him.

Sounds safe. It's not!

At other times, he will ask for proof that you are able to pay the deposit and rent due to a string of time wasters.
This proof is in the form of a Western Union or MoneyGram payment to a lawyer,a friend or family member.

In either case, if payment is made and you give this person the details, they will collect the money.
You will not hear from them again.

All the details such as names, addresses, pictures etc. that the scammer uses in order to back up his story, are stolen from elsewhere.

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 Craigslist, Gumtree or similar listing sites. If you receive any requests from 'Landlords' asking for some kind of payment 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.

Hi!

I'm one of the naive victims of 'Leslie Andree' or 'Remus Valery', and other aliases.
In my desire to find a nice apartment to rent for my fiancée to move into in Hong Kong I failed to apply caution and ended up losing HK$22,000.

'Leslie' was advertising a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom flat at 77 Smithfield Street, Kennedy Town, HK. Pretty much word-for-word what the above post shows, and 'Leslie' used Craigslist.

Sadly I fell for it and followed instructions sent by Tracy at [email protected] and transferred HK$22,000 via Western Union to a Remus Valery of 10 Paget Street, London.
Of course I have not received any further communication from them.
Western Union have logged a Fraud case about this.

'Leslie' has put up another one of these on adpost website http://www.adpost.com/hk/homes_offices/30104/

Hope this can help.

Leslie Andree <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to look at my property.
My name is Leslie and I am a civil engineer, originally from the United Kingdom. I used to work in Singapore, but the problem is that I had to move with my job back to the United Kingdom, London where I am now. During my stay in SG I bought this apartment but I don't want to sell it, so that's why I decided to rent it.
I am looking for a responsible person that can take a very good care of my apartment. I am not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the possible tenant will see the apartment as his or her own and I hope that you can send me some personal information about yourself. The apartment is fully furnished with all necessary amenities (exactly like in the pics). It has dishwasher, washing machine and clothes dryer. There is a storage unit where you can deposit my furniture (if you don't like it and you want to use your furniture) and AC. Pets allowed. Cooking allowed. This is not a shared rental with the owner or other people.
The monthly rent for the entire apartment is SGD 1400 and also includes monthly utilities bill (electricity, water, heat, cable, gas, internet connection+wifi), so there is nothing else to be paid on top of that. I am looking for someone to rent anywhere from 1 month to 5 years or more. Also the apartment is available immediately!
Sadly I do not have anyone there, so the property is being managed by Airbnb (no agency fees) and they will handle the whole rental process. If you want to know more about the rental process please get back to me and I will send you the step by step procedure.


Kind regards,
Leslie

Leslie Andree <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Janice,

I am glad that you are still interested in my apartment. As I already told you in my first email Airbnb will handle the rental process in my behalf. I will have to contact the rental agency and provide them all the necessary information so they can start the rental process. For that I will need your full name, current address, email and phone number.
You will receive a notification from the rental company containing all the instructions that you need to follow and the invoice as well. To secure the apartment you will be instructed to deposit 2 months (SGD 2800) rent to the agency. The keys, the rental agreement and the copy of the ownership of the apartment will be delivered by their agent at your current address same day the deposit is paid, or you can meet with the agent at the apartment when you arrive. You will be given a 5 days inspection period from the day you receive the keys and lease agreement. If you are satisfied with the apartment all you have to do is to sign the lease agreement and inform the agency. If you don't sign the tenancy agreement you receive a full refund of your deposit payment within the same day you made your decision. After you move in the apartment, the monthly payment will be sent directly to my bank account.
If you wish to proceed please provide the requested details and I will submit your application right away.
I look forward to hearing back from you. Thank you for your time and nice cooperation.


Best regards,
Leslie

Leslie Andree <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi,

Airbnb isn't a local agency; they are an international rental agency who operates on an on-line platform, through email service.
As I said in my previous email you will receive the keys, the tenancy agreement and the copy of the ownership of the apartment within the same day the deposit payment has been confirmed; then you have a 5 days period to decide if you keep the apartment or not. In case you decline the tenancy agreement you receive a full refund of the deposit payment within the same day you hand over the keys to the agency. If you agree to rent the apartment and sign the tenancy agreement, the deposit payment will cover the first 2 months rent and then you start paying rent from the third month; only after that they will send me the deposit. We are both protected regarding the deposit you don't need to be worried about it. You will transfer the deposit to the agency not to me. This is how the agency works.


Best regards,
Leslie

Hey Guys!
Thank you for this post. It confirmed my suspicion that Leslie was indeed a scammer. As I read through your emails I am horrified to think what if I have gone through the whole process of paying her out. It is a hard earned money and we will be in a lot of trouble if I had not taken the time to research it out. I tried to check her FB if she had one but couldn't find any by that name so I just thought maybe she doesn't have one. Thanks to your posts! I was so thrilled to see the pictures of the apartment and just took her word for it until I stopped and thought about it when she mentioned about money transfer to a supposed airbnb agent for which I confirmed from the official airbnb website that moneygram it is not a mode of payment. Then I asked my husband to take a look at it cause I felt like something is wrong then he noticed the domain <[email protected]> that's when I knew I need to reconsider and research more and saw your posts and to my surprise she doesn't even bother to change the content. Just hope no one else will fall victim to this scammer.

Leslie Andree <[email protected]>
Attachments17 Dec (5 days ago)

to me
Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to look at my property.
My name is Leslie and I am a civil engineer, originally from the United Kingdom. I used to work in Singapore, but the problem is that I had to move with my job back to the United Kingdom, London where I am now. During my stay in SG I bought this apartment but I don't want to sell it, so that's why I decided to rent it.
I am looking for a responsible person that can take a very good care of my apartment. I am not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the possible tenant will see the apartment as his or her own and I hope that you can send me some personal information about yourself. The apartment is fully furnished with all necessary amenities (exactly like in the pics). It has dishwasher, washing machine and clothes dryer. There is a storage unit where you can deposit my furniture (if you don't like it and you want to use your furniture) and AC. Pets allowed. Cooking allowed. This is not a shared rental with the owner.
The monthly rent for the entire apartment is SGD 1400 and also includes monthly utilities bill (electricity, water, heat, cable, gas, internet connection+wifi), so there is nothing else to be paid on top of that. I am looking for someone to rent anywhere from 1 month to 5 years or more. Also the apartment is available immediately!
Sadly I do not have anyone there, so the property is being managed by Airbnb (no agency fees) and they will handle the whole rental process. If you want to know more about the rental process please get back to me and I will send you the step by step procedure.


Kind regards,
Leslie

This fella is still at it. Why isn't the stupid local police doing anything about it? And I thought Singapore is suppose to be a safe place. What a waste of time!

NOTE: found his ad in Craigslist.
...........

From: Leslie Andree < [email protected] >

To:
Subject: Re: One br apt nicely renovated in D11, Akyab Road

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to look at my property.
My name is Leslie and I am a civil engineer, originally from the United Kingdom. I used to work in Singapore, but the problem is that I had to move with my job back to the United Kingdom, London where I am now. During my stay in SG I bought this apartment but I don't want to sell it, so that's why I decided to rent it.
I am looking for a responsible person that can take a very good care of my apartment. I am not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the possible tenant will see the apartment as his or her own and I hope that you can send me some personal information about yourself. The apartment is fully furnished with all necessary amenities (exactly like in the pics). It has dishwasher, washing machine and clothes dryer. There is a storage unit where you can deposit my furniture (if you don't like it and you want to use your furniture) and AC. Pets allowed. Cooking allowed. This is not a shared rental with the owner.
The monthly rent for the entire apartment is SGD 1400 and also includes monthly utilities bill (electricity, water, heat, cable, gas, internet connection+wifi), so there is nothing else to be paid on top of that. I am looking for someone to rent anywhere from 1 month to 5 years or more. Also the apartment is available immediately!
Sadly I do not have anyone there, so the property is being managed by Airbnb (no agency fees) and they will handle the whole rental process. If you want to know more about the rental process please get back to me and I will send you the step by step procedure.


Kind regards,
Leslie

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Original craigslist post:
http://singapore.craigslist.com.sg/apa/5365439910.html

Hi SlamminSG, welcome to scamwarners.

The local police can't do anything about it as the criminal is anywhere but Singapore (or London). He is just pretending to be in that location, so the local police can't do anything about that.

I thought Singapore is suppose to be a safe place.

When it comes to rental scammers, nowhere is safe, I'm afraid.. Keep an eye open and always be cautious and on the lookout for red flags. Thank you for posting and keeping us updated about the scammer!

This person is also operating in Netherlands, Amsterdam area, advertising on Craigs List. Exactly the same MO, so it was easy to spot, but still extremely annoying to have my time wasted and informed him/her of my low opinion.
I was surprised to find apartments at such reasonable prices on Craigs List, but now realise that they are mainly scams which is very sad. The administrators need to take care of this otherwise the legitimate advertisers are driven out and the site is in disrepute.