Rental scammers via Skype? *worried*

Hi, I have recently received multiple emails from a lot of different people, two of which I have found out to be scammers through this site (Kelly Gail and Peta Mcpharlane), renting out rooms in Perth, Australia.
The common thing seems to be that they are not in the city and/or country at the moment and want a signed lease and bond+first months rent before letting me see the apartment. Fortunately, because of this site, I so far haven't lost any money.
But now I have received emails from people that I can't find here so I thought I better check if these are scammers too.

First one gave me a phone number that didn't work, and then proceeded to contact us via skype to see what we looked like, and then chatted with us on Skype for a long time. When things started to come up about the rental process, we found that she wanted a signed lease and money before letting us see the apartment, this because of bad experiences with people stealing jewelry on viewings. At this point I got cautious and called it off.

I now have a second person who would like me to contact them via skype to make arrangements. Is this a new thing? That they use skype to try to prove that they are real? Should I be worried about letting the first person see me on skype? Unfortunately she was so convincing at first that she even managed to get me to send over a picture of my student ID, should I be worried about this? Is there anything she can do with it, and if so what can I do?

Hi inacir,

These are good questions. Both sound sketchy, though most scammers do not use Skype video because the pictures would show that they do not match who they claim to be.

Rental scammers ask for money quickly and first. They don't really have anything to rent, they have stolen the photos from legitimate rental sites. You can use Google images or tineye.com to see if the photos show up as being some place else on the internet.

Do not send money by Western Union. You will have no way to retrieve the money if things go wrong. You really should see the rental in person before sending any money even if they say they will send the keys to you.

Ad far as your ID. Depending on what kind of information is on the ID. He could sell the information or use the ID to scam other people. If in doubt, you might talk to your school and see what they have to say about someone having a copy of your student ID.

I would strongly encourage you to not send copies of your ID to anyone over the internet. If they want a copy of your ID, they can get it when you meet them in person.

Please feel free to ask questions. We strongly encourage people to be safe on the internet. Sending IDs on the internet is no longer safe.

Actually, though it is still a very small number, I am beginning to see scammers using Skype and adding their Skype addresses in their contact information.