Roommate Scam

I started receiving emails from this person from email address [email protected] after I posted an ad on craigslist.org looking for someone to move into this place I have. Sounds really fishy and I'm pretty sure it's a scam.

Her
My name is sandra and I am looking to rent a place to live. I am a
young professional and will be needing to move ASAP. I am willing to
pay first and last months rent .I am very responsible and open to any
kind of lease. I am an Humanitarian worker and was posted on a new job
to your area.I will be glad if i could hear back from you sooner.
Thank You[/quote

Me
Hey Sandra, my name's ______. I need a roommate ASAP so that's works out. It's not much but it's got awesome lake access my landlord let's me use. If you want to talk more and figure something out, like coming to see it in person, you can call me at __________. I'll be home the rest of the day. I have to work tomorrow morning; just leave me a message if I don't answer and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I'm a hopeful chef at ______. Hope you hear from you soon. Thanks.

Her
How are you? My name is Sandra Ochoa
there. Am very happy for receiving your e-mail,i so much appreciate it..

Now,am in vermont,this is my present address...85 Fairfield St, St

Albans, VT. my rent fee is about to due in 2 weeks time,so am relocating

and I will like to move in by weeks in August

I would have suggest we should meet before making any plans,but am

very busy right now,and i have alot of things to do. But i will like you

to tell me more about the place and the area,i will like you to also tell

me more about you,my uncle is sick presently,so i want to go to Finland

(My home country) to take care of him very well,though i won't take long

over there,but i really want to secure the place down before going,so do

let me know amount of security deposit i have to send..

More about me,am a neat type of person,honest,humble and responsible.

I like honest,responsible,and hardworking people while i hate the

lazy,messy and uncaring people....well,am a quiet and gentle going person

to live with....I am 5.7 in height,i like tourising,and i don't keep late

at nights,neither i will have overnight guest around,but am ok if you

do..
I am 25 years old of age,i give people respect,both adult and young

ones,am humble,am very easy to get along with...
I don't have pet but am okay with pet,i don't drink and i don't

smoke,i don't keep late at night,and am a straight female with no drama..
I was born and brought up in Finland,i studied there,i had my

university education right there while staying with my uncle.. I lived

all my life in Finland before coming down to vermont have been living

with my uncle since have been 13 years old of age...Then i was member of

the Red Cross Association,it really sounds interesting for me...

Why am moving and my work:

Am moving over to your state because i understand that i'll be doing

good over there,as have been told by my uncle's friend who have once live

over there. And i will be working with any hospital around you as i am

also making necessary enquiries on that now....

Am sure You 'll really like the person that i am ,because i will also

do the dishing if you like,I work when i am to and relax when i am to,I

also like sharing my thoughts also....paying rent on time will not be a

problem as i will also be making the rent fee before the month ends....

Right now.I ve the support of my uncle about my well being,so you

shouldn't be bothered about if i am competent of paying the rent ..

I must confess am comfortable with the price and I will want to

secure the place down before my arrival so i will want you to tell me all

about the place,as i can't see it before my arrival but the pictures...I

also will want you to know that i have my car that i will be coming over

with,and little of my furnitures,please let me know if there will be room

for them..

With all that i ve said above,I have told you more about me and more

picture of mine will be attach in the next email,Let me also know how i

can go about securing the place down before my arrival as i will also be

busy from next week preparing to come over and let me know if you can

take off the ad off the site as i am going to secure the place with a

deposit

Feel free to ask me any question and as i ve said,i am looking to

move in by the availability of the place,but want to secured it now.
Thanks..
This was really how she sent the email too, all double-spaced.

Me
The place is on __________________. It's a trailer, and the room is not big but it works. The rent would be 250 a month and we would split the utility bill. I'll send you some pictures when I get home. The place itself is alright, but I'm living there for the lake access. Before you move in, you'll have to fill out a background check for the landlord. I'll email a copy of it to you, then you can print it off and mail it via US mail back to me. As long as you can pay every month on time and are comfortable signing a lease, you can go to Finland for as long as you'd like. I just really need a responsible adult to move in and help me pay these bills. I'm much the same as yourself. I clean up after myself, I don't have parties or anything, I might have a friend or two over but we don't really get that loud. I work first shift so I'm sleeping pretty early every night. I'm a 22 year old aspiring chef. _______ a pretty laid back town. It's not big, but it's big enough to find what you need. Where I'm at, it's pretty quiet most of the time. I have dock access, so if you want to get a boat, the landlord will hook you up. As far as furniture and stuff goes, there's not really much space for any more, I already have all that stuff. You should consider getting a storage unit to put them in here in ______ until we can figure out if we can fit anything else. If you really want to secure the place for you this soon, I'll need Aug. 1st's rent. Money for the utilities would be nice too. Let's put that at $50. So $300 total to move in and that will get you through August. Once we get that background check cleared, I'll send you an address to mail the check to. Sound good? Look me up on Facebook. I would feel much more comfortable if you called me. E-mail is not my preferred method of communication. Hope to hear from you soon!

Her
Hi again ,
Thanks once again for the quick reply I would have loved to call You but am leaving now to see my sick uncle in Finland ,i can only communicate through email but I will, whenever i get there but before that i will want to secure the place, I am very happy meeting a person like you It 's nice reading from you again and i will never ever want to loose the room even without seeing the place ,I will want You to know that i am okay with the cost ,if none is included again.....
I got to believe that the person that one wants to live with matters most i believe that you'll be a nice person I just have my dressers, computer table, kitchen utensils and a queen size bed,2 big luggage's and my car to be shipped....
I got a message that my uncle is sick in Finland, i hope have already mention that before and i have to go see him but i am making plans to secure place so that when i come back i'll just move in into the place we are talking about. and with the way we ve communicated, I am okay with you and i want you to know that i don't want to make any travel plans without securing a place down now, I will be signing a year lease for the start if you are okay with that so I’ve let my uncle understand more about you and the place, He is really comfortable and he told me that it is a nice area he had lived in the states before and he said that i should not afford to loose your place also he said that i should try and make sure that i hold down the place,so i thought of it and i will be making payment to hold down the place and the mode of payment will be by United State Certified Money Order or cashier check so pls let me know the one you prefer. And if YES pls provide me with the following information to get the payment to you.Your full name as it will appear on the payment, your work place address or home address,to ensure delivery in your hands through regular mails or a courier service your phone number on the package to avoid package missing in transit.I will be moving to your place by first week in August, Kindly get back to me with this requested payment information so that we can proceed asap i would also want to know if the ad has been taking off the site?am attaching some couple of pictures of my self along with this mail for you to have an idea of what i look like.
Feel free to ask me any question(s) you have okay
Thanks...

She also sent a pic and a zip folder which I did not open. I did not reply to this one. I'm 99% sure it's a scam now. Way too good to be true. Plus the email's are so generic. She could have sent those same replies to me no matter what I said, and it still would have been mostly in context to what I was talking about. I don't know how they plan to scam me, if they're trying to get me to open a virus infested zip folder or something else. Mostly I'm just curious and also want to alert other people to this stuff.

Hello and welcome Wentzly,

Yes, it is a scam. The scammer will send you a fake check or money order have you cash it at your bank. Days, weeks even months later the bank will inform you that it was a fake. You will have to re-pay the money back to the bank and possibly be investigated for bank fraud.

The scammer is setting up the scenario where she will send the fake check/money order to you. Later the scammer will claim they are unable to move in because of some situation with the uncle. They could also claim they sent an over payment.

In all situations the scammer will insist that you send money to them via Western Union or Money Gram. If you were to send the money. You will never see it again.

Very unlikely the scammer sent you a virus.

Bryon

The first message is script; the second and subsequent messages are the scammer's own writing. It looks more West African than Finnish (I don't speak Finnish, but I once helped a Finn with his pronunciation of English, and sounds present in English but not the writer's language show up in spelling). Her name isn't Finnish either, though people move around these days. I suggest you Finnish talking with her.

Thanks a lot. I was wondering how the scammer planned to get money from me. It's hard to believe anyone would send that money back. I sure wouldn't. But then I'd just have to give it back to the bank later anyway.

Hi

I got pretty much the exact same message.... The originating e-mail address was a bit more believable though: [email protected] ... still, I was pretty suspicious right away...

My name is KATHY JOHNSON and I am looking to rent a place to live. I
am a young professional and will be needing to move ASAP. I am
willing to pay first and last months rent .I am very responsible and
open to any kind of lease. I am an Humanitarian worker and was posted
on a new job to your area.I will be glad if i could hear back from you
sooner.
Thank You

Unfortunately I did not think to look this up 'till after I made a reply... I'll follow-up here if I get any significant feedback. <groan> Live and learn I reckon... I'm kind of new to this "find a roommate" thing.

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