Rental Scammer - [email protected]

becky pluck <[email protected]>:
How are you doing? After reading your email, I can offer you a room in the fully furnished shared three bedroom apartment which is available for your stay in the city. The price of the rooms goes for 500€ for ROOM 1 while ROOM 2 and ROOM 3 goes for 450€ each. The price is inclusive of electricity, gas and bed linen/towels, dinnerware, WIFI, all bills, etc...And a security deposit of 700€.

Apartment Description:

The apartment is fully furnished. There are three bedrooms, three bathrooms,a kitchen and a living room. The kitchen is fully equipped with a dishwasher,washing machine and a dryer. The sleeping arrangements are: three double beds in three bedrooms with three separate bathrooms. Each bedroom with private bathroom. The apartment will be shared by three people.

Apartment Location:

This apartment is set on a street that is not far from center, universities, transportation, shopping, cinema, etc...... The address is
Kiiltokalliontie 32a, 02180, Espoo, Finland. This is a very smart and safe area. There are stores that is open night and day, cafes, bars and restaurants and a convenience store /mini-market is a 2 minutes walk.

WHY MY APARTMENT ?

Live your own way in a vibrant international community with loads of opportunities to meet new people. Relax in your room and build your own nest in a Well-designed, secure and comfortable apartment. Have all your maintenance needs taken care by me, feel very safe and secure with the friendly environment. Going to weekly events, movie nights, parties. Surf the net to your heart's content with extra-fast WIFI, use washing machine as you want it.

Attached to this mail are the pictures of the rooms and the apartment as a whole for you to view. There is a procedure to follow for the room to be reserved for you upon your arrival. I am currently in Central African Republic (CAR) on an humanitarian service to assist the vulnerable women and children but I will be back to the city.

Regards.

From: becky pluck <[email protected]>

How has been your day so far? I hope you are fine? Attached to this mail are the Contract Agreement. I want you to print and sign them too. Below is my bank account details. I want you to make the payment of €1150 into it.

ACCOUNT NAME: Becky Pluck

IBAN NUMBER: GB74NWBK60000145719225

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 45719225

SWIFT/BIC: NWBKGB2LXXX

BANK NAME: Natwest Bank

I look forward to your mail now with the signed Agreement and the payment receipt for reference purpose.

Regards.

Becky.

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.

Good evening, everybody! This is Melle, and I would like to share my experience with this fraud as well as how I found out its "fakeness". Hopefully, this will help innocent people like me elsewhere. So let's begin:

PS: I will be highlighting in red suspicious aspects of "her" emails too.

Be careful with this "lady", young people!

She contacted me to know if I was interested in sharing an apartment with International flatmates in Barcelona. And, since I am, I replied affirmatively.

Su nombre: Becky, 23 años
Su email: [email protected]
Su mensaje: How are you? Would you like to share a three bedroom apartment with other two young international flatmates? If yes, then, I have a newly vacant two rooms for rent in Barcelona. Contact me via [email protected] for more details. Regards. Becky.

Therefore, she sent me the exact offer as she did to Michelle , but with the address and prices changed (and, obviously no floor or door number specified whatsoever)

El jul. 26, 2017 23:52, "becky pluck" <[email protected]> escribió:
How are you doing? After reading your email, I can offer you a room in the fully furnished shared three bedroom apartment which is available for your stay in the city. The price of the rooms goes for 400€ for ROOM 1 while ROOM 2 and ROOM 3 goes for 350€ each. The price is inclusive of electricity, gas and bed linen/towels, dinnerware, WIFI, all bills, etc...And a security deposit of 700€.

Apartment Description:

The apartment is fully furnished. There are three bedrooms, three bathrooms,a kitchen and a living room. The kitchen is fully equipped with a dishwasher,washing machine and a dryer. The sleeping arrangements are: three double beds in three bedrooms with three separate bathrooms. Each bedroom with private bathroom. The apartment will be shared by three people.

Apartment Location:

This apartment is set on a street that is not far from center, universities, transportation, shopping, cinema, etc...... The address is
Carrer de Muntaner 20, 08011, Barcelona, Spain. This is a very smart and safe area. There are stores that is open night and day, with a mix of attractions inn, cinema, exhibitions, premier music concert events, cafes, bars and restaurants . A 24 hour large supermarket is within 10 min walk, and a convenience store /mini-market is a 2 minutes walk.

WHY MY APARTMENT ?

Live your own way in a vibrant international community with loads of opportunities to meet new people. Relax in your room and build your own nest in a Well-designed, secure and comfortable apartment. Have all your maintenance needs taken care by me, feel very safe and secure with the friendly environment. Going to weekly events, movie nights, parties. Surf the net to your heart's content with extra-fast WIFI, use washing machine as you want it.

Attached to this mail are the pictures of the rooms and the apartment as a whole for you to view. There is a procedure to follow for the room to be reserved for you upon your arrival. I am currently in Central African Republic (CAR) on an humanitarian service to assist the vulnerable women and children but I will be back to the city.

Regards.

Becky.

Althought it was already a little implausible due to the apartment's distribution (3 bathrooms at that price? Not common at all in here), I let her know I would like to rent the ROOM 3 and make a reservation for October 1st.

How are you doing? You can start to rent the room from October or there about. The Room in the apartment will be reserved for you till your arrival into the apartment on this condition. Attached to this mail are forms to be fill by you for the reservation agreement and contract agreement to be prepared. I will want you to fill them and you return them back to me for the reservation agreement and contract agreement to be prepared.

Once i get the details, the reservation agreement and contract agreement will be prepared, a copy of each will be send to you via email for you to read and sign. After you must have signed the reservation agreement and contract agreement, then you will make a payment of 1050€ as the refundable security deposit (700€) and first month rent (350€) now in advance into my bank account so that the room can be reserved for you. Once i have the money in the account, it means the room is reserved for your till your arrival into the apartment.

I look forward to your mail with the filled forms so that we can sort out this reservation at once.

Regards.

Becky.

Besides it being A LOT more expensive in comparison to the rest, I fount it fair (Idk why. Don't ask). I completely filled those forms with my personal information (name, age, occupation...). However, my ID card number was not asked for (which MUST be done by law in Spain).[*]

She didn't reply until the next day to let me know the "contract" would be sent to me by any time soon.

OK, you will get the Contract Agreement very soon.

Regards.

How has been your day so far and how are you doing this evening? I hope you are fine? Just to let you know that the Contract Agreement is almost ready and you will get them today. I will like to know who will be making the payment? Is it you or your parents? Let me read from you now.

Regards.

And that. [*]

Yesterday, I recieved the contract attached to this mail.

How was your night and how are you doing this morning? I hope you are fine? Attached to this mail are the Contract Agreement. I want you to print and sign them too. Below is my bank account details. I want you to make the payment of €1050 into it.


ACCOUNT NAME: Becky Pluck

IBAN NUMBER: GB74NWBK60000145719225

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 45719225

SWIFT/BIC: NWBKGB2LXXX

SORT CODE: 08-71-99

Description of Transfer Code: 08719964601055

BANK NAME: NATWEST BANK PLC

I look forward to your mail now with the signed Agreement and the payment receipt for reference purpose.

ATTENTION: When making the payment at your bank, Please insist at your bank to input the Description of Transfer Code: (08719964601055) for the transaction to be successful into my account.

Regards.

Becky.

Not only she hadn't provide any ID card number, but any phone number or convincing address once again. (Not to mention the huge age gap set between the first mail and the file.)

Furthermore, the contract is illegal unless it is written in the language whose country takes place in. (Spanish, in this case.)

And, if you are living in Spain, how come you don't have a Spanish bank account yet? It smells wrong.




As we could all guess, this character (AKA Pluck Becky Franca) does not exist.

Then, I tracked her IP address from the mails.







...and how about that? I didn't know the Central African Republic happens to be placed in Georgia, Atlanta (US)!

Anyway, I'm aware this could have been a bit unnecessary (and super extra). But I felt the need to spread the word, and also vent my frustation. I lost my time (and almost my money), but I 've learned from my mistakes as an internet user.


Have a great day!


[*] I didn't know that until now.
[*] Now I have realized she wanted ME to be the one to make the payment. Because, you know, I'm the naive teen here.