Rental Scammer - [email protected]

From: Sothmann Bjoern - [email protected]
Sent: Monday, 14. May 2012 11:11
To: Con Warner
Subject: EUR400 / 1br - Spacious and well apartment for rent (munich)?

Hello

Thanks for replying to my ad! Attached are some pictures.The apartment is fully furnished and it is in the exact state as shown in the attached pictures.

Am renting out my apartment due to my relocation to Athens, Greece for my new job.

My apartment is located at Schwanthalerstraße 5, 80336, München, Germany. The apartment Fully furnished unit with beautiful Shower & Bathroom, Kitchen, Living room, Balcony, yard, Parking and much more. Just bring your cloths; I have everything else here for you.Close to Bus Stops, Major Grocery, Shopping Stores is in a very conducive environment.The monthly rent euros 400 includes all utilities in the apartment (Water, internet, electricity and heating) and the security deposit which will be refund to you after your stay in the apartment is euros 600.

Utilities includes:
Washing machine,cook ware,Microwave,Bath Shower, Hair Dryer, Towels, Linens,ADSL internet,cable TV,LCD TV, Stereo/Radio System DVD Player,DVD/Music Collection.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Get back to me as soon as possible if you are interested and we can proceed.

Thanks

This person asks for a deposit payment via Western Union, MoneyGram 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.

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.

I bumped into that guy as well... It's totally scam!!
Listen to this:

Hello,
Thanks for replying to my ad! Attached are some pictures.The apartment is fully furnished and it is in the exact state as shown in the attached pictures.

Am renting out my apt because of my relocation to Romania for my new job.

The apartment is located at Tieckstrasse 10 Mitte, 10115 Berlin, Germany. The apartment Fully furnished unit with beautiful Shower & Bathroom, Kitchen, Living room, Balcony, yard, Parking and much more. Just bring your cloths; I have everything else here for you.Close to Bus Stops, Major Grocery, Shopping Stores is in a very conducive environment.The monthly rent is Euros 400 includes all utilities in the apartment (Water, internet, electricity and heating) and the security deposit which will be refund to you after your stay in the apartment is Euros 700.

Utilities includes:

Washing machine,cook ware,Microwave,Bath Shower, Hair Dryer, Towels, Linens,ADSL internet,cable TV,LCD TV, Stereo/Radio System DVD Player,DVD/Music Collection.

Let me know if you have any other questions.
Get back to me as soon as possible if you are interested and we can proceed.
Thanks

this guy is still going! and if you fall for it and begin to 'proceed' he becomes very agitated and hastles you, bombarding with emails etc.

Hello

Thanks for replying to my ad! Attached are some pictures.The apartment is fully furnished and it is in the exact state as shown in the attached pictures.

Am renting out my apartment due to my relocation to Romania for my new job.

My apartment is located at Schwanthalerstraße 5, 80336, München, Germany. The apartment Fully furnished unit with beautiful Shower & Bathroom, Kitchen, Living room, Balcony, yard, Parking and much more. Just bring your cloths; I have everything else here for you.Close to Bus Stops, Major Grocery, Shopping Stores is in a very conducive environment.The monthly rent euros 400 includes all utilities in the apartment (Water, internet, electricity and heating) and the security deposit which will be refund to you after your stay in the apartment is euros 700.

Utilities includes:
Washing machine,cook ware,Microwave,Bath Shower, Hair Dryer, Towels, Linens,ADSL internet,cable TV,LCD TV, Stereo/Radio System DVD Player,DVD/Music Collection.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Get back to me as soon as possible if you are interested and we can proceed.

He's still around. Found his ad on craigslist.

His email has changed [email protected]
he says to send money to his solicitor, named: POPA VALERIU DAN (He is a Romanian).

I asked for the solicitor's company name and the question was not answered.
I googled the apartment was given an intersection, I asked for the apartment name and a picture of the outside, he said to google map it myself. He did not give me an apartment name nor a picture.
Also, his ad said 430euros/month and then his email said 400. More red flags went up.

I said I was uncomfortable with the direct deposit and asked it to be done by credit card or pay pal and to be 15% of the total. No reply.

Luckily my friend found this forum for me and saved me from a huge mistake.

========================================
Hello,

Thanks for replying to my ad! Attached are some pictures.The apartment is fully furnished and it is in the exact state as shown in the attached pictures.

The apartment is located at 48 Rue de Bonnel, 69003 Lyon, France. very close to shops and restaurant which is in a very good area and has a very attractive living room,dining,kitchen and has a fireplace with internet facility and the monthly rent is for the apartment is 400 euros with all charges inclusive and the security deposit which will be refunded to you after your stay in the apartment is 700 euros

Am renting out my apartment because i just relocated to Romania for my new job.

Utilities includes:

Washing machine,cook ware,Microwave,Bath Shower, Hair Dryer, Towels, Linens,ADSL internet,cable TV,LCD TV, Stereo/Radio System DVD Player,DVD/Music Collection

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Get back to me as soon as possible if you are interested and we can proceed.

Thanks!

Also goes under the name James Donald
-------------------------------------------------------------
James Donald
[email protected]

Hello,

Thanks for replying to my ad! Attached are some pictures.The apartment is fully furnished and it is in the exact state as shown in the attached pictures.

Am renting out my apartment because i just relocated to Romania for my new job.

The apartment is located at Arkadiankatu 10, 00101 Helsinki, Finland. The apartment Fully furnished unit with beautiful Shower & Bathroom, Kitchen, Living room, Balcony, yard, Parking and much more. Just bring your cloths; I have everything else here for you.Close to Bus Stops, Major Grocery, Shopping Stores is in a very conducive environment.The monthly rent is Euros 400 includes all utilities in the apartment (Water, internet, electricity and heating) and the security deposit which will be refund to you after your stay in the apartment is Euros 600.

Utilities includes:
Washing machine,cook ware,Microwave,Bath Shower, Hair Dryer, Towels, Linens,ADSL internet,cable TV,LCD TV, Stereo/Radio System DVD Player,DVD/Music Collection.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Get back to me as soon as possible if you are interested and we can proceed.

Thanks

I have found this one on Craiglist under the following post ID: 3846538966.
http://berlin.en.craigslist.de/apa/3806110478.html
It's the one about the 430 euro Mitte apartment... bla bla bla.. going to Romenia.
The mails were flowing nicely until I said I wanted to see the flat. Then the replies suddenly finished.
After a few unanswered mails i googled his mail and found this site. Then things started to make sense.
I've already sent notice to CraigsList.
I think that there could be a few more scams from the same guy there, given the type of prices and location.
Just lo let you know that this mail, as well as the other aliases should be blacklisted ASAP.

Best regards,

Luis Correia

Hi All,

Thank you so much for posting this info. I've been having some correspondence with this person today (3 June 2013) and I decided to just google his name/address, and found this forum.

Thanks so much! His emails have been verbatim what everyone here has posted, and he still appears to be operating on craigslist with the same address...

Sothmann Bjoern <[email protected]>
9:57 PM (47 minutes ago)
to me
Hello,

Thanks for replying to my ad! Attached are some pictures.The apartment is fully furnished and it is in the exact state as shown in the attached pictures.

I'm willing to rent out this apartment due to my current work in Romania which was the reason why I want to rent out the apartment.

The apartment is located at Tieckstrasse 10 Mitte, 10115 Berlin, Germany.The apartment Fully furnished unit with beautiful Shower & Bathroom, Kitchen, Living room, Balcony, yard, Parking and much more. Just bring your cloths; I have everything else here for you.Close to Bus Stops, Major Grocery, Shopping Stores is in a very conducive environment.The monthly rent is Euros 400 includes all utilities in the apartment (Water, internet, electricity and heating) and the security deposit which will be refund to you after your stay in the apartment is Euros 700.

Utilities includes:

Washing machine,cook ware,Microwave,Bath Shower, Hair Dryer, Towels, Linens,ADSL internet,cable TV,LCD TV, Stereo/Radio System DVD Player,DVD/Music Collection.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Get back to me as soon as possible if you are interested and we can proceed.

Best Regards,
Sothmann

Cheers,
Stephanie

This is so terrible! He is still in operation I think and I have just been scammed as well!

I suppose it is my own fault for being very naive on Craigslist, but he seemed legit - sent me a copy of his passport and even a copy of the rental contract showing that he owns the apartment.

I was so upset today that I sent him an email expressing my disappointment on the trust I gave him...

HE ACTUALLY REPLIED THIS:

Hello,

Am very disappointed seeing these kind of message from you. This happen to all post email on craigslist. I assure you are safe with me and i sent you all requested document you ask me.

I'll surely send the keys to you as soon as my solicitor confirmed the payment from you. Although he's currently out of the city for official assignment.

I'll get back to you as soon as he confirmed the payment and the keys will delivered to the address next working days.

Best Regards,
Sothmann

He sounded so believable because at first he said,

I'll be available to handle over the keys for you as soon as you signed the lease contract and make the reservation payment for the apartment,

Looking forward to hearing from you so i can provide my details to receive the reservation payment so i can take permission from work to meet you.

Best Regards
Sothmann

His new "solicitors" account number by the way is:

LAWAL SESAN
IBAN RO34BTRL0510420AF77758XX
BANCA TRANSILVANIA S.A.
15 ROMANA SQUARE
TURDA
ROMANIA

He has been claiming that his solicitor has still not received the bank transfer that I made!

BEWARE!

I am also now utterly confused. Any ideas how to get my money back?? I mean since I have the bank details, I could report this and stuff? That is 1,030 Euros wasted...

Call me stupid, but I replied back to him:

Hi Sothmann,

I am truly hoping what appeared on the Internet is false and that I can really trust you…

Hope to hear from you soon that the money has already arrived because my bank confirmed that they did not see a problem.

He replied back:

Am rely assuring you are deally legally with me and what you found on the internet was totally false accusation against me.

I'll keep you updated when my solicitor confirmed the payment and I'll send you the keys as soon as possible and it will delivered to the address you gave me next working days. I'll also provide you with the tracking number to it so you can track it as well and you will know exact date it will delivered.

Thanks for the trust you have in me name and i'll never disappoint you.

Best Regards,
Sothmann

I am now truly truly truly confused. I do not have high hopes for this however, and he will DEFINITELY not get any more money from me.