too good to be true

i found a listing on craigslsit and it was a house for rent for 700 dollars securtiy depoist 700 for 3 rms and 1 bath. here is the emails he sent me;Hi Dear,

Thanks for your mail.I have your delivery address so i will be going to send off the keys and paper work to your house address once i receive the confirmation of your deposit.I should have called but my calling card got exhausted so i want you to call me on my cell.I want you to know that what we are requiring from you is your security deposit and after moving into the house,you will be sending the rent so i want you to know that you will be sending the payment via wire transfer because it is the easiest and safest way for us to receive the payment here so i will like the payment wired to the information below via Western Union.The total amount you would send is just the $600 Security deposit. So just go to any grocery store around you and make the payment today so as soon as the payment is confirmed today, your package will be sent same today for you to receive by tomorrow and i will also get back to you with your tracking number for you to track your package
Address: : 42 Crawford Street, Marylebone, London, W1H 1HA, UK
Kindly get back to me with the below information as soon as you send the money

Here is the frist email he sent;Thanks for your interest in my house. I am very sorry for the late response,it was due to my wife illness but thank God she is getting better.I am a professional piano/music theory teacher, I'm easy going and friendly. I like Music and have deep interests in travelling. I respect every religion and love to hang around with people and i am definitely not a trouble maker and very helpful in nature. I am currently living in London - UK and I will be here for long so that is why am looking for a clean and responsible tenant to live in my house. The house is located at:151 Verbena Drive, East Palo Alto CA 94303.


Its a spacious and lovely 3-bedroom fully furnished home with utilities included and pets are allowed. I want you to know that I am a kind and honest man and I spent a lot on my property that you are interested in renting, so I will solicit for your absolute maintenance of the house and I would want you to treat it as your own, I would like you to keep it tidy always and I also want you to let me have trust in you as I always stand on my word,the rental fees is $700 per month including utilities and the damage deposit is $700. I know you will be wondering why the rent is so cheap. Well I am not after the money, what am after is the welfare of my property. I will like you to drive by to the building today to view the exterior of the building for you to know where the apartment is located and get back to me so that I can forward you the full interior pictures to you to have an idea how beautiful and spacious the inside looks and we can proceed to the application form.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Welcome here aiden627.

This is a common room for rent scam, i am glad you spotted it as a scam. Could you also post the e mail address the scammer is using? Or the full headers of the e mails? If you don't know how to find the headers, just ask.

[email protected]

This guys is getting good look at mine......

First Email:
Thanks for your interest in my house. I am a professional piano/music theory teacher in the Royal Academy Of Music London United kingdom here is our website http://www.ram.ac.uk/ I'm easy going and friendly. I like Music and have deep interests in traveling. I respect every religion and love to hang around with people and i am definitely not a trouble maker and very helpful in nature. I am currently living in London - UK due to my transfer and I will be here for as long as 7 years that is why am renting out my house at a very affordable price.

Now all am looking for is a good tenant who would take good care of my house, that is why am renting it out, and also the reason why it is so cheap and affordable.The house is located at: 8481 W. Union Ave. #2-104,Denver, CO 80123.This 2 bedroom and 2 bathrooms House is fully fenced. Kitchen is bright and cherry with all wood cabinets and plenty of counter space. Open dining room and large living room.with about ~ 800-1000 sq. ft.

All bedrooms are nice sizes. Master bedroom offers two separate closets which allows for plenty of clothes! Garage can be used as extra space, workshop or as, of course, a garage. There is plenty of space for a vegetable garden and a separate fenced area for pets. Some landscaping with perennials and mature bushes and trees. Fresh paint throughout.The rent is $600 monthly including utilities and $600 for security deposit.The house is available for long term and short term lease is acceptable. The building is in a great location situated in the quiet and safe area and offers secure access. internet, cable, laundry in-suite, storage facilities, heat, water, electric and parking is included in the rent and pet are allowed.


I had a Realtor company help me look for good tenant but they were handling things too professionally and were extorting the tenants so i took the job of there hands and tried doing this my self but couldn't find any as a matter of urgency. And I don't want my home misused in my absence that is why I took the keys and documents along with me. So I hope you will promise me to take very good care of the house always.

I will like you to get back to me with your final decision after viewing the interior pictures and exteriors and let me know if you are interested in proceeding with the rental so that I can forward pictures and the application form to you.


Waiting to hear from you soon,
Regards
Kevin Heylin

Royal Academy of Music
Registered Charity no. 310007 website:http://www.ram.ac.uk/
Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HT, UK. Telephone +44702 402 5826 +44702 402 5826



Second Email:
Thanks for your mail. I'm glad that you are willing to proceed with the rental. I have the keys and the house documents here with me like i said and I will be shipping it to you through DHL courier service after processing your application form.I understand how it is to trust this days but i assure you that you have nothing to worry about so for this reason we are requesting the $600 refundable security deposit so we can use that to pay for the mailing of the keys so if you receive the keys and move in if you like it you send the rest but if otherwise we would send you back your money and you our keys if this is okay i will like you to fill the form and email it back to me asap for processing once i receive it i would give you a call before we proceed.

RENT APPLICATION FORM
FIRST NAME:__________________
MIDDLE NAME: _________________
LAST NAME: __________________
PROFESSION: ________________
(CELL)PHONE () __________
(CELL)PHONE () _____________________
(WORK)PHONE () __________
KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________
PRESENT ADDRESS: _____________________
CITY: _______________
STATE: ______________
ZIP CODE: _______________ HOW LONG? ______________IF RENTING
WHY ARE YOU LEAVING?
IF THIS APARTMENT IS BEING GIVEN TO YOU,
HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? _______________
WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________
IF YOU HAVE A PET,
NAME OF PET: _____________
KIND OF PETS: _____________
HABITS
DO YOU SMOKE? ___________
DO YOU DRINK? ______________
DO YOU WORK LATE NIGHT? ____
DO YOU HAVE THE SECURITY DEPOSIT?_____________

Once i received the filled copy of the rental application form, I will make an arrangement on how to get the house keys and documents shipped to you through DHL courier service without any further delay.
I await your swift response.
Regards



:
At this point I wanted to look at the house and question some stuff some I asked if I could see the place first. He Said sure and I went to the address. Everything Seem to fit.It was empty with a realitor ad in the window, it was empty with open widows for view and it matched the pictures.

Third Email:

Hello Dear

You will be sending the wire tranfer via Money Gram so just go to any money gram outlet or walmart close to you to send the payment.I will be waiting for the confirmation of the payment so that i can go send out the keys and get back to you with the tracking number.

Once I receive the payment confirmation from you, I will get the keys shipped to you through DHL courier service {Overnight Delivery} and the shipment tracking number will be emailed to you so that you can know the exact time the package will be delivered to you and also move in at your own convenience time and you will be getting the keys within 24hrs

Receiver's Name: Kevin Heylin

Address: : 42 Crawford Street, Marylebone, London, W1H 1HA, UK

Kindly get back to me with the below information as soon as you send the money via money gram

Sender's Name:
Sender's Address:
Reference # (8 Digit):
Amount Sent: $
Address to receive keys
Regards



So I went a head and wired the money. A couple hours later I had a bad feeling and started to look into it more and thats when I found this link. I Was so overwhelmed I thought I had just lost 900$! Lucky I called Moneygram and had it canceled before it was avalible the next morning at 7 a.m. Thank god I didn't loose it all.

Welcome to Scamwarners and I'm glad you were in time to retrieve your money.

Welcome natas_legna69 and we love to hear about scammers getting to miss out on payday

I may sound like a broken record, bit it can't be stressed enough

Whenever a 'landlord' gives you a UK phone number beginning in this format

4470 or 44 (0)70

it's a scammer and there's no point going any further.

If he ever mentions Western Union or MoneyGram, whether it's to make payment or some peculiar way to prove you have funds, he's a scammer and you should drop him. The reasons why a person doesn't have a bank accoun would also be good reason not to trust him with your cash, and if he says he won't trsut you with his bank details why should you trust him with cash ? The reason is usually that he isn't in the UK at all and he lives a life where he carries his wealth in his pocket.

Two small points to remember to make sure scammers stay lean and hungry.

Hi everyone. As Gomer stated, the phone number is a good indicator it's a scam.
Please view an earlier explanation of the 4470 phone numbers dated Thurs the 25th Nov 2010
Can be seen here, viewtopic.php?f=26&t=13567

Hey me too!

'Cept this time his name is Richard Bishop.

I Googled the phone number and this site came up first.

I suspected something when he said he was a piano prof. but he lived in Denver, claiming he was "relocated." I teach at a university and knew a lot of his story didn't check out. His name was nowhere on the faculty site and some things were misspelled to a point that I genuinely wondered how he could work at the Royal Academy of Music and not know which form of "to/too" to use.

I contacted the realtor to confirm the identity of the man but discovered this site before they got back to me. I replied to his message with a link to my "faculty page" to confirm my identity that actually links him to lemonparty.


Below is 'his' message.

Subject: House
From: 'Dream Wishes' [email protected]

Thanks for your interest in my house.I am very sorry for the late response,it was due to my wife illness but thank GOD she is getting better.I am a professional piano/music theory teacher in the Royal Academy Of Music London United kingdom here is our website http://www.ram.ac.uk/I'm easy going and friendly. I like Music and have deep interests in traveling. I respect every religion and love to hang around with people and i am definitely not a trouble maker and very helpful in nature. I am currently living in London - UK due to my transfer and I will be here for as long as 7 years that is why am renting out my house at a very affordable price.

Now all am looking for is a good tenant who would take good care of my house, that is why am renting it out, and also the reason why it is so cheap and affordable.The house is located at: 9794 Garrison Lane,Westminster, CO 80021.This 3 bedroom and 3 bathrooms House is fully fenced. Kitchen is bright and cherry with all wood cabinets and plenty of counter space. Open dining room and large living room.with about ~ 800-1000 sq. ft.

All bedrooms are nice sizes. Master bedroom offers two separate closets which allows for plenty of clothes! Garage can be used as extra space, workshop or as, of course, a garage. There is plenty of space for a vegetable garden and a separate fenced area for pets. Some landscaping with perennials and mature bushes and trees. Fresh paint throughout.The rent is $700 monthly including utilities and $500 for security deposit.The house is available for long term and short term lease is acceptable. The building is in a great location situated in the quiet and safe area and offers secure access. internet, cable, laundry in-suite, storage facilities, heat, water, electric and parking is included in the rent and pet are allowed.


I had a Realtor company help me look for good tenant but they were handling things too professionally and were extorting the tenants so i took the job of there hands and tried doing this my self but couldn't find any as a matter of urgency. And I don't want my home misused in my absence that is why I took the keys and documents along with me. So I hope you will promise me to take very good care of the house always.

Below are the interior pictures for you to have an idea how beautiful and spacious the inside looks, I will like you to get back to me with your final decision after viewing the interior pictures and exteriors and let me know if you are interested in proceeding with the rental so that I can forward the application form to you.

Waiting to hear from you soon
Regards
Richard Bishop
Royal Academy of Music
Registered Charity no. 310007 wbsite:http://www.ram.ac.uk/
Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HT, UK. Telephone +44702 402 5826

Two other things pure_West102

No British person ever uses the term 'realtor', and we have our own currency, and imagine your reaction if you saw an American apartment advertised with a rental quoted in pounds sterling.

Small points but very telling. The phrasing and style of the mail is also very 'Nigerian'.

Many Nigerian scam emails are very similar except for the names used in the message and various details such as place names, dates, amounts and contact details. In spite of the seemingly endless variety of cover stories used by Nigerian scammers, the core scam remains essentially the same. Be wary of any unsolicited email, letter or fax that promises you a percentage of a large sum of money in exchange for helping to transfer, procure or process funds. Such messages are very likely to be the first contact and "bait" for Nigerian scams like the ones listed here. The sum of money does not exist. Those who take the bait by replying to a Nigerian scam message will eventually be asked for advance fees supposedly required to allow the deal to proceed. They may also become the victims of identity theft

From email: [email protected]
Phone number: +234 803 337 2245

Thanks for your interest in my apartment. I am a professional piano/music theory teacher, I'm easy going and friendly. I like Music and have deep interests in traveling. I respect every religion and love to hang around with people and i am definitely not a trouble maker and very helpful in nature. I am currently living in United Kingdom and I will be here for long that is why am renting out my apartment. our new home and put all my worries off concerning the maintenance of the home for, since i am not residing there for now.I left behind some Facilities and electronics which include the rent, and a DVD player, air conditioning, alarm system. The kitchen is fully equipped with all necessary cooking utensils, are refrigerator-freezer, four-hob and oven,microwave,dishwasher and washing machine, My Computer Connected with Internet Access Also the keys to the apartment are right here with me, and the lease document. Which i can send to you after all necessary agreement has be accepted. Also i will like you to know that the rent charges is not really the issue ,but your absolute maintenance of my apartment is most important thing so will want you to get back to me with the Application form below..

SO IF YOU ARE REALY INTRESTED I WILL WANT YOU TO FILL THE RENTAPPLICATIONS FORMS BELOW


1)Your Full Name ?
2)Present Address(where you reside now) ?
3)Phone ?
4)How old are you ?
5)Are you married ?
6)Occupation ?
7)Current rent payment ?
Reason for moving out ?
9)How many people will be living in the apartment ?
10)The rent fee available now ?
11)How long are you willing to stay ?
12)When do you intend to move in ?
13)Do you have a pet ?
14)Do you smoke ?
15)How many Month or Year Do you want to Stay?
16)Deposit : One or Two month Deposit are required?


Address :44 Stubbs Drive North York Ontario, Canada M2L 2R3

One Mr lucky called me about the apartment,I told him that I can't give him the apartment because he loves smoking,drinking and don't want him to get drunked and damaged my property one day so If you are still interested, Note that the rent is going to be $700 Per month No extra fees.I will like you to give me a call on this effect to know how serious you are.I personally will actually come visiting you sometimes during the year as our new tenant.Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file in case of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you. Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the keys of the home to you. So that you can check the home .i want you to know that the home have been locked and you will have to drive pass just to view the home and the area.Please give me a call or Text 347 352-0367

Waiting to hear from you soon,
Regards

Thanks..

From email: [email protected]
Phone number: +234 803 337 2245

I am currently living in United Kingdom and I will be here for long that is why am renting out my apartment.

Address :44 Stubbs Drive North York Ontario, Canada M2L 2R3

Note that the rent is going to be $700 Per month No extra fees.Please give me a call or Text 347 352-0367

.

its a scam. why would anyone in the UK have 2 phone #'s, one a Nigerian # and the other a NY, NY #?

Information on phone number range +234 803XXXXXXX
Number billable as mobile number
Country or destination Nigeria
City or exchange location
Original network provider* MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd

Area Code: 347 Carrier: Bandwidth.com Full Number: 1-347-352-0367 City/State: White Plains, NY

rent is very underpriced, and from what I can tell, sublets are not allowed and all rentals must go through the property manager ( who happens to have a Canadian phone #).
http://www.rentboard.ca/rentals/rent.as ... 6338e39c33

http://www.caprent.com/Properties/Ontar ... tubbs.aspx

^Obviously the lad mixed up North York and New York. Also the writing is obviously West African, not Canadian or British.