RENTAL SCAM SAME GUY IS AT IT AGAIN!!!

im 22 years old and i just had the same exact experience with the same guy and wanted u to warn everyone one. hes going under the name Adrian collins. his email is [email protected]

first email........ My name is Adrian Collins, I am the owner of the apartment at 100 South Village Avenue, Rockville Centre NY 11570[Edit Home Facts]. The monthly rent is $750,security is the same as rent $750.Presently, i am in Canada working as the Vice President, Card Service at ATB Financial , Calgary, Canada. I can come down to show you the apartment if i am convinced that you are serious. The initial plan was to sell the apartment. which we tried, but the Realtor inflated the prize hence taking more time to sell, because of this reason, we need a responsible person that will take very good care of the apartment. Most importantly ,a serious and trust worthy person who will be willing to pay the rent without delay.
Note; the move-in cost is the total amount of 2 months rent and a security deposit. As a very busy person I would only take my time to fly down to the US for you to preview the apartment, only if you accept to pay the above move-in cost after seeing the apartment.
FURNITURE : Apartment is fully furnished but if you are moving in with your furniture there is a storage room in the unit where you could keep our furniture.

Call me on 3476870495 for more update.

THE LEASE IS FLEXIBLE (3 MONTHS) (6MONTHS) (1YEAR) (2YEARS)

Get back to me with the following if you are still interested.
Applicant Name:
Number of Adults:
Number of Children:
Profession:
Number of Pets:
Home/Cell Phone & Work Phone:
Current Landlord Name:
Phone:
Address for Last one Year:
Date of Birth:
Person to Notify in Emergency:
Relationship with this person:
Address of this person:
Phone number:
I look forward to hearing from you.



Regards,
Collins.
3476870495

second email.... We highly appreciate the high level of seriousness on the apartment. Because of this, we have decided to rent the apartment to you with out asking any further questions. My wife was very excited that you are going to become our first tenant. The utilities are included in the rent.
I want to be sure you have the money at hand before flying down to the US , like i mentioned in my previous email, I am a very busy man and will like to be sure before taking the risk.
TO AVOID MULTIPLE CANDIDATE: We will remove the ad from www.craigslist.org
As soon as I hear from you I will let you know my flight schedule.

Regards and God bless.
Collins


third email..... I and my wife have seriously thought about flying down from Canada to handle the transaction. We concluded that if you are really serious and have the money for the rent as you have mentioned, then for us to confirm that..
PLEASE READ THIS PARAGRAPH CAREFULLY
What we request of you is to look for a friend, neighbor, brother or sister of yours that you trust, and send the 2 months and security deposit to him or her through MoneyGram and email a copy of the receipt for confirmation.This will give us a proof that you have the money as you claim.I WILL THEN COME DOWN TO THE USA WITH THE KEYS AND RENTAL DOCUMENTATION TO CLOSE THE DEAL. As soon as I arrive New York i will show you the apartment and sign the lease, after which You and the person that you sent the money to can easily walk down to the MoneyGram store to pick up the cash and pay me. However, If in any case you do not like the apartment, then what you do is go back to where the money was sent from and cancel the transaction and your money will be refunded to you. But I know that you are going to love the apartment once you set your eye on it.
BASED ON THE MoneyGram process Your safety is secured, Since the only person that have access to the money at any point in time is you and the person you sent the money to. We have been using MoneyGram for a while now to send money to John our son and it is secured and has always worked perfectly for us. I have traveled once from Canada to USA, only for it to be a wasted journey, ticket fee and business absence. Because of these number of unserious people who like to waste other people's time, we are strongly recommending the MoneyGram process to ensure it doesn't happen again, I hope you understand the situation here and our worries ?
I will be waiting to here from you.
Thanks and God bless
Regards
Collins


phone # 3476870495


same exact scenario!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is incredibly disappointing...

But thank you do much for sharing.

I have now dealt with the exact same scam, with almost the exact same messaging, although it seems that the person used an enhanced spell check this time... Please Beware. I fortunately was able to catch it somewhat early, but still:

FIRST MESSAGE:
My name is Michael Redeker, I am the owner of the apartment at 15 West 53rd Street, New York NY 10019. The monthly rent is $790,security is the same as rent $790.Presently, i am in Canada working as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at ATB Financial , Calgary, Canada. I can come down to show you the apartment if i am convinced that you are serious. The initial plan was to sell the apartment. which we tried, but the Realtor inflated the prize hence taking more time to sell, because of this reason, we need a responsible person that will take very good care of the apartment. Most importantly ,a serious and trust worthy person who will be willing to pay the rent without delay.
Note; the move-in cost is the total amount of 2 months rent and a security deposit. As a very busy person I would only take my time to fly down to the US for you to preview the apartment, only if you accept to pay the above move-in cost after seeing the apartment.
FURNITURE : Apartment is fully furnished but if you are moving in with your furniture there is a storage room in the unit where you could keep our furniture.
Utilities are included

Call me on 3476870495 for more update.

THE LEASE IS FLEXIBLE (3 MONTHS) (6MONTHS) (1YEAR) (2YEARS)

Get back to me with the following if you are still interested.
Applicant Name:
Number of Adults:
Number of Children:
Profession:
Number of Pets:
Home/Cell Phone & Work Phone:
Current Landlord Name:
Phone:
Address for Last one Year:
Date of Birth:
Person to Notify in Emergency:
Relationship with this person:
Address of this person:
Phone number:
I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Michael.
3476870495

SECOND MESSAGE:
We highly appreciate the high level of seriousness on the apartment. Because of this, we have decided to rent the apartment to you with out asking any further questions. My wife was very excited that you are going to become our first tenant. The utilities are included in the rent.
I want to be sure you have the money at hand before flying down to the US , like i mentioned in my previous email, I am a very busy man and will like to be sure before taking the risk.
TO AVOID MULTIPLE CANDIDATE: We will remove the ad from http://www.craigslist.org
As soon as I hear from you I will let you know my flight schedule.

Regards and God bless.

Michael

Sites that enable people to post ads for apartment rentals free of charge are overrun by scam ads nothanks1.

I don't really know the answer other than to use a well known property agent in your home town to fix up an apartment. Most people looking at online ads are wanting the best deal, but doing that only guarantees you'll get scammed. I only have to look at apartment rentals on craigslist in London to be able to spot from the prices alone that most are scams, and if I dig deeper, it's probably going to be anything up to 80% or 90%.

Maybe there's a gap in the market for a website that is more pro-active in deterring scammers, maybe by just charging $1 for each ad posted. It wouldn't stop them, but it would cut the numbers, and by having a record of payment, it would enable a scammer's access to future postings blocked if they had posted scams in the past.

As it stands now, people have to be very cautious if they use free ad sites.

Hi nothanks1
Thanks for posting.
Would you mind posting the email address that your scammer used.
It just might help someone if they are doing a web search on the email address.

The email address used by the scammer was: [email protected]